The Denver Nuggets lost another home game yesterday in the clutch.
It was a difficult loss for Denver as they led for almost the entire game, though they never gained any separation from the Cleveland Cavaliers. The combination of Donovan Mitchell and James Harden proved too much to deal with throughout the game, as the Nuggets struggled to contain either player and force the Cavaliers to take bad shots.
But the Nuggets still maintained a lead late in the contest and appeared ready to win it, forcing a three-point miss by Jaylon Tyson with just over a minute remaining. The Nuggets were up three points and likely needed to score one more time in their final three possessions to ice the game. Unfortunately, the Nuggets came up empty on all three possessions, with Nikola Jokic committing a key turnover, Tim Hardaway Jr. missing a wide open three, and Jokic not getting a good shot at the buzzer.
Harden hit a stepback three to tie the game up, then after the Hardaway miss, Mitchell drew a foul against Jamal Murray and sank two free throws to give the Cavaliers the lead with 0.9 seconds remaining. It was a bad foul by Murray in that situation.
The Nuggets have let plenty of home games slip away this season, but none were quite as visceral as that. Denver’s control throughout the night fell right through their fingertips at the end, and the team dropped to just 14-11 at home on the season compared to 20-9 on the road.
Denver utilized very balanced scoring throughout this game with no Nugget exceeding Jokic’s 22 points. Seven players scored in doubled figures with Julian Strawther and Christian Braun each scoring 20 points and Jamal Murray adding 17. Jokic achieved a triple-double with 22 points, 14 rebounds, and 11 assists, though he shot the ball just 11 times and turned it over on 7 occasions. Rather than go to work as a scorer down the stretch, Jokic was primarily hunting passes for teammates, and that unselfishness ultimately didn’t pay off.
Without Aaron Gordon, Spencer Jones, or Peyton Watson in the lineup, the Nuggets didn’t have the personnel to match up comfortably with Mitchell and Harden. Bruce Brown was on the floor for a while and did solid work defensively until the final two minutes when he was pulled, having scored just 1 point and shooting 0-of-6 from the field on the other end.
It was clear that the Nuggets were going to have to win this game by scoring. Facing Mitchell (32 points and 10 assists) and Harden (22 points and 7 assists) with the spacing and rim rolling around those two dynamic playmakers, it was clear that Denver needed their offense to carry the day.
Ultimately, that didn’t happen. The Nuggets didn’t shoot as efficiently as they needed to from distance at 32% from three. Hardaway, Murray, and Jokic combined to shoot just 4-of-17 from distance, and if Denver’s three best three-point shooters combined to make one more three, the Nuggets win this game.
The Nuggets were annoyed at this loss
There are times when the Nuggets players and coaches can shrug off a loss throughout the season. It’s 82 games, and sometimes a loss happens.
This wasn’t one of those times. The team was irritated. Players in the locker room were brief and to the point regarding the mistakes and mishaps down the stretch. Jokic and Braun at the podium were more terse than usual.
“This is one of the ones you remember at the end of the year,” Adelman stated plainly. “It sucks. I will not sleep tonight.”
“There were so many little things we didn’t do in the second half,” Braun shared with a level of irritation. “That’s on me.”
Jokic’s almost dismissive irritation was fairly on brand. He highlighted that he was trying to score in the post when the turnover occurred with about 40 seconds to go. There were a lot of “I don’t know” quotes from his presser. He was frustrated with the way things went, knowing that the game was in hand and ultimately slipped through their fingers once again.
In an extremely weird turn of events, the Nuggets are now 5-11 in games when Jokic has played in the clutch with a raw plus-minus of -41 in his minutes. Last year, the Nuggets were 19-14 and +61 when Jokic was on the floor in the clutch, so this has been a very new development. The late turnover was just Jokic’s fourth in the clutch all year, so that isn’t a concerning trend but rather a random blip in an otherwise difficult clutch year for the Nuggets.
Denver’s 29th in clutch defensive rating now. That’s where they’ve continuously struggled, because in previous seasons, they’ve found ways to get stops. Now, they have to be perfect offensively in the clutch, or else they leave themselves vulnerable. Aaron Gordon has played just seven games in the clutch so far. The Nuggets are 4-3 in those games, so fans can do the math about whether Jokic and the Nuggets might be missing Gordon or not.
Ultimately, the Nuggets have one more game until the All-Star break. They’re limped into the break with the injuries that they have and the talented teams that they’ve faced. Denver’s struggles are a byproduct of injuries and fatigue, but that won’t be a good enough excuse after the All-Star break.
It’s go-time for the Nuggets. This can’t keep happening to them if they want to win a championship. Too many teams are good enough to take advantage of Denver’s flaws, so the flaws have to disappear.