The Denver Nuggets offense continued to struggle in the first game of their four-game Eastern Conference road trip, losing to the Charlotte Hornets, 110-93.
This is the third game in four contests the Nuggets have not reached the 100-point threshold so far this season.
After playing the Hornets even until mid-way through the first quarter, the Nuggets gave up a big run and never regained the lead. The Hornets led by 27 at one point and cruised the rest of the way to victory. This is the Nuggets’ second loss in a row, and dropped their record to 1-3.
According to Michael Malone after the game, the Nuggets didn’t provide the effort he was expecting. Courtesy of the Denver Post’s Gina Mizell:
#Nuggets coach Mike Malone on decisive second quarter: "It was just no effort, no energy, no commitment to the game plan."
— Gina Mizell (@ginamizell) October 26, 2017
More Malone: "I can’t motivate 15 individual players and give them a 'rah-rah' speech. You’re paid professionals. Your job is to be ready."
— Gina Mizell (@ginamizell) October 26, 2017
Strong words from the Nuggets head coach.
Hornets center Dwight Howard pushed around Nuggets star center Nikola Jokic from the very beginning on his way to 15 points and 19 rebounds. While Jokic tied Gary Harris for a team-high 18 points, the Serbian center couldn’t get anything going in facilitating the offense and had zero assists for the game.
Jamal Murray added 16 points on 7-of-20 shooting. While the second-year player from Kentucky has improved his defense (holding Hornets guard Kemba Walker to 19 points on 4-of-9 shooting) his offense is only very slowly coming back around. The Nuggets high-priced offseason acquisition, Paul Millsap, has struggled to put his stamp on the team and only scored eight points and had a +/- of minus-27.
The Nuggets will face the Brooklyn Nets on Friday hoping to stem their two-game losing streak.
