Roller coaster loss in playoff rematch exposes Nuggets' biggest issues yet again

The Nuggets were back at it on Friday night, taking on the team that knocked them out of the playoffs a few months ago, the Minnesota Timberwolves. Denver played from behind for much of the night, but put it all together in the 4th quarter and built up a 12-point lead late in the game. 

However, uncharacteristically, the Nuggets completely turtled in crunch time as the Wolves ended the game on a 10-0 run to get the 119-116 win. The loss drops the Nuggets to 2-3 on the young season and all of their losses have felt similarly frustrating.

Nuggets bench is a total disaster

Yet again, the bench was the biggest problem for Denver; it was exposed even more in this game because Jamal Murray suffered a concussion and missed most of the second half. Even with the extra minutes, the Nuggets’ bench provided just 13 points on 4/22 shooting from the field. They did not make a three-pointer.

No matter how you spin it, that’s just an unacceptable level of production. Dario Saric played four painful minutes where the team was -11 and didn’t see the floor again. Beyond that, Russell Westbrook played 25 minutes, shot 1/8 and was -13. Julian Strawther saw 16 minutes and was also -13 on 1/4 shooting.

Peyton Watson was the only other Nuggets bench player to see more than 5 minutes and he was -9 on 1/6 shooting. Hunter Tyson saw his first action of the season and actually made his only shot in his 4 minutes - maybe he has earned a bigger look.

Michael Malone, again tried to change his rotations up - and was forced to after the Murray injury - but nothing seems to work. The scary and harsh reality may just be that the bench players are not very good. There may not be a correct combination or substitution pattern to make this work.

Nuggets starters play well, but too many minutes

The good news is that Aaron Gordon and Michael Porter Jr. each had their best game of the young season. Gordon put up 31 points, 11 rebounds, and hit 5 threes while MPJ had 26 and 6 and made 3 threes. Nikola Jokic was his usual brilliant self, adding 26, 9, and 13. Christian Braun had another great game with 14 and 7, including a monster poster dunk on Rudy Gobert; Braun has taken that starting spot and run with it.

But those starters are playing far too many minutes and doing so in a regular season loss in November. They play again on Saturday night and they’ll almost certainly be without Murray for the foreseeable future. The Nuggets need to find a way to play the starters fewer minutes without hemorrhaging losses and they need to do it before this season becomes a lost cause.