The Denver Nuggets were late to their own game on Wednesday but ultimately played a great game against the Sacramento Kings, winning 117-96 in blowout fashion.
Jamal Murray led the way with 32 points on 13-of-15 from the field. He was absolutely cooking.
De’Aaron Fox sat out this one, so the Kings weren’t fully whole, and the Nuggets took advantage with their starters especially. The Kings struggled to score while the Nuggets were locked in, even if that took a bit longer than expected.
“We were definitely a late arriving team tonight that first quarter, not really ready to play,” Michael Malone shared postgame. “They jumped us a little bit, but after quarter one, I thought the defense was outstanding. I think we held them to 61 points in quarters two, three, and four.”
The Nuggets started the game slowly and poorly in the first quarter, going down by as many as 15 points in the middle of the second quarter with the Kings pouring it on. The Kings, led by Keegan Murray and Malik Monk, were hitting every shot and generating good ones consistently. Denver struggled to guard on the perimeter, and even when Denver forces misses, the Kings grabbed plenty of offensive rebounds for second chance points.
Then, the Nuggets turned on the jets in the second quarter with a 33-8 run.
“It feels great. The game is fun, everybody’s having fun out there and enjoying themselves,” Kentavious Caldwell-Pope shared. “How we play, moving the ball, sharing it helps everybody out and keeps everybody happy.”
Denver flipped the entire game with defense, hustle, and elite shot making both at the rim and beyond the arc. Aaron Gordon was the catalyst on both ends of the floor, putting consistent pressure on the front of the rim against a Kings frontcourt that struggles to battle with him on the interior. The Nuggets found Gordon consistently, and he had multiple And-1’s and transition dunks to flip the momentum.
Aaron Gordon being able to turn into a leading scoring option is what makes the Nuggets so difficult to beat.
— Swipa (@SwipaCam) February 29, 2024
“You look at the plus-minus, Aaron was a +40 tonight in 24 minutes. That’s incredible”
In addition to Gordon, Jamal Murray had some big, big moments. Murray was about the only Nugget that could score while Denver struggled and kept the Nuggets in the game. Then, he hit some big transition threes to end the second quarter and extend Denver’s lead. It was one of Murray’s more impressive shooting performances of the season and added to how locked in he’s been of late.
Denver continued that momentum into the third quarter in a major way. Michael Porter Jr. and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope got their shots going. Nikola Jokic accumulated his triple-double late in the quarter, and Murray continued to cook. The Nuggets rolled on both ends of the floor and showed exactly what they could do against a Kings team that had no answers for them.
The Nuggets defense tonight was suffocating. They held the Kings to a 98.9 offensive rating.
They did a particularly good job of shrinking the floor in the third quarter.
Some team defense highlights from that quarter: pic.twitter.com/0ow0rShF5q
— Matt Brooks (@MattBrooksNBA) February 29, 2024
“I was just playing my game,” Murray shared postgame. “The whole team played great. Got out and ran. Had a bad first quarter as a squad and picked it up.”
“When Jamal is engaged the way he was tonight and has been, and he’s aggressive and assertive, he’s a phenomenal player,” Malone declared. “We’ve all seen what he’s capable of doing when he plays with that mindset.”
The Nuggets now move to 40-19 on the season, and they did it with some incredible play from their starting group. Some of Murray’s numbers came with the bench to prop up that unit, but the rest of the starters each had plus-minuses ranging from +35 to +40. The team turned defense into offense, running in transition consistently and taking advantage of porous Sacramento defense.
That’s simply what great teams do. Even if they don’t start the game well, they sure will finish strongly.
“Just understanding what time of the year it is,” Malone exclaimed. “This is not the halfway point. This is a stretch run, and I do feel that our guys are locked in.”
But have the Nuggets found that championship gear?
“Yes,” Caldwell-Pope declared. “For us, it’s crunchtime. We want to be the number one seed, and we don’t want any of these games to slip by us.”
Final Rotations
