The Denver Nuggets have been unable to stay consistent ever since the All-Star break ended, but after a loss at home to the Washington Wizards, there was hope for a renewed effort to put together a strong finish to the regular season.
Unfortunately, a road matchup with a fully healthy Golden State Warriors team stood in their way. If Denver wanted to bounce back and start to gain positive momentum heading into the playoffs, they would have to do so against the league’s most dominant team.
Denver played hard for a total of about eight minutes before getting punched in the mouth by the Warriors, who then ran away for the remainder of the game as Denver fell 116-102 in Oakland.
From the get-go, the Nuggets bigs set the tone by playing extremely physical and tough basketball. Jokic was setting strong screens and battling for rebounds while Paul Millsap manufactured points in the post and out beyond the 3-point line.
It was clear that the Nuggets felt that they had an advantage to exploit by playing through their bigs so they made a point to do so early and often. They were sending both Jokic and Millsap to the glass for offensive rebounds early and the offense was almost entirely flowing through them. That advantage worked in Denver’s favor in the first quarter as they out-rebounded the Warriors 14-12 and had seven offensive rebounds.
Unfortunately, the Nuggets were outscored by six points when Jokic sat in the first quarter. Their offense became stagnant and it allowed the Warriors to run in transition off of Denver’s misses. With Jokic in the game, Denver tied the Warriors with 24 points a piece. Without Jokic, Denver gave up a 6-0 run which is why they trailed 30-24 when the first quarter came to an end.
The turnover issues that the Nuggets starters had in the first half was the biggest cause of concern. They allowed 14 points off of eight first-half turnovers which is the equivalent of death against Golden State. It is no secret that the first priority on offense for any team facing the Warriors is focusing on not turning the ball over. Clearly, they Nuggets did not get the memo as the let the Warriors run all up and down the court for the first 24 minutes of the game.
In the time Jokic was off the floor, Denver was outscored 17-7, but it could have been much worse. While the offense of the reserve unit was atrocious, Denver’s bench unit was surprisingly strong on defense. Sure, the Warriors missed some open shots, but Denver’s second unit was flying around and playing with tons of urgency despite their lack of execution.
Once Jokic came back in, Denver trailed 41-31 and things only got worse from there. Instead of Denver’s starters closing the gap, the Warriors threw the Nuggets on their heels and began landing haymaker after haymaker until their lead was as high as 16 points.
Once the second quarter mercifully came to an end, the Nugget trailed 59-43. They were being out-rebounded, gave up 20 assists to Golden State, shot an awful 34.6% from the field, and lost all of the available momentum.
If Denver was going to find a way to fight their way back into the game on the road, it was going to be because they played through Jokic on offense and locked in on defense in the second half.
Denver did not check off any of those boxes and instead continued to take off the accelerator more and more as the game went along. Then, they were thrown a life raft when Kevin Durant was ejected from the game for arguing with an official. Sure, he deserved a single technical, but the second one came very quickly which led to Durant’s dismissal from the game with 8:21 left in the 3rd quarter.
Unfortunately, the Warriors have been completely unstoppable this season without Durant on the floor and the second half against the Nuggets was no different. Without Durant, the Warriors extended their lead from 19 points to 22 points by the time the third quarter ended with the score holding strong at 86-64.
Nuggets head coach Michael Malone emptied his bench in the fourth quarter in order to get his starters rest. That move was essentially the waving of the white flag for the Nuggets as they eventually fell to the Warriors by 14 points after garbage time closed the gap from a 30-point deficit. The final score was 116-102.
There was not a single member of the Nuggets who stood out statistically. Denver’s starting back court — Murray, Harris, and Barton — were a combined 12-35 from the field, 1-9 from 3-point distance and only scored a total of 33 points. Jokic struggled as well and only managed to accumulate 10 points, five rebounds, and five assists against a whopping six turnovers.
Next, the Nuggets will finish up their back-to-back with a home matchup with the San Antonio Spurs. That game will tip off at 7pm MDT in Denver, Colorado at the Pepsi Center.
