It has been pretty remarkable to watch what the Nuggets have been dealing with this season, and especially the past few weeks, but it finally caught up to them on Sunday. They survived both legs of a road back-to-back earlier in the week and got through another first leg on Saturday, but on Sunday, it was time to pay the piper.
Denver had their second straight back-to-back (they had two days off in between), this time at home, and this time it was too much. Aaron Gordon sat out to rest, joining the injured Nikola Jokic, Cam Johnson, Christian Braun, and Jonas Valanciunas.
You could tell from the jump that the Nuggets were lacking energy. They looked like a tired team, and they got punched in the mouth by the Hornets. Denver was lucky to be trailing by just 15 after the first quarter, and things didn’t get better from there.
They scored just 34 points in the first half and at one point, trailed by as many as 33. If not for a fourth-quarter flurry once the game was long decided, this easily could have been the lowest scoring output for any team this season. They got completely decimated down low, missing both centers plus Gordon, they lost the rebounding battle 61-36, and calling it a “battle” feels offensive to actual battles.
The final result was a 110-87 loss in Ball Arena to the 16-27 Hornets, who were also on the second half of a back-to-back. The leading scorer for the Nuggets was Jamal Murray, but he played just 25 minutes and put up 16 points.
Despite ugly loss, Nuggets still in great shape overall
David Adelman realized the direction this game was headed and called off the dogs early in the third quarter. Sometimes in the NBA, it’s just not your night, and that was clearly the case for the Nuggets on Sunday.
While it was a pretty repulsive showing all around, this team has earned the benefit of the doubt. We can burn the tape and move on to the next game. This team was exhausted; they’ve been beaten, battered, and bruised, and they were due for a complete stinker.
The loss ended a four-game winning streak and a run of winning six of their last seven. They’re still an impressive 7-4 without Nikola Jokic, and they’ve maintained their ground just fine, as they’re now 29-14 on the season, just a half game behind the Spurs for the two seed.
So call this what it was, a scheduled loss. Injuries and fatigue caught up with them for a night, and the results were ugly. But getting Gordon a night off is much more important than fighting for a regular-season win against the Hornets. Jokic and the rest of the cavalry will be back soon, and we’ll turn the page from this wretched performance, never to speak of it again.