The Denver Nuggets are on a roll. They’ve now won eight of their last 11 games and are currently on a three-game winning streak after a 124-118 win over the Brooklyn Nets.
Brooklyn had as much as a 12-point lead in the third quarter until Denver went on a 15-3 run thanks to Austin Rivers who had the hot hand. He scored 11 points in the quarter to help outscore the Nets 42-26 and then put up 11 more points in the fourth to close out the game. He finished the night with 25 points on 7-10 shooting from beyond the arc.
“When you see a couple go down, you just keep being aggressive,” Rivers said. “I felt like these past couple of games I’ve just been feeling really good. Shooting the ball well, I’ve been putting in the work. I’m healthy. I had a good talk with coach a week or so ago and I’ve just been feeling really good. Just coming out here being aggressive and it’s easy on this team because guys just make the right play.”
Rivers and coach Michael Malone had some differences a few games ago which had Rivers benched for the second half against the Clippers and the entire game against the Grizzlies. They had a successful talk and discussed their expectations of one another. They came to an agreement and Rivers stayed ready for his number to be called.
“Austin is he said all along I’m going to stay ready,” Malone said. “He’s smart enough to know in this business it’s going to come around and he didn’t play in the second half in one game, and didn’t play at all the following game and then he started a couple with Will out and then he comes in as the MVP of the game for us and scoring all those points for us in the second half which we needed every one of them.”
In addition to Rivers, Nikola Jokic had another big game with 26 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists while Will Barton added 21 points and 10 rebounds. DeMarcus Cousins got in his rhythm, too, with 13 points and six rebounds until he got ejected from the game.
“My challenge to him: he picked up a tech in that third quarter, I went over and whispered in his ear, hey, no fourth quarter techs,” Malone said. “And obviously he got the second one and he got thrown out and because I love him he also knows I’m going to hold him accountable and I told him and the rest of the team he’s too important we can’t have that. We need DeMarcus in the game. Leave the refs alone, leave everybody else alone. Just go out there and do your job and play and when he does that he’s got a chance to be a really impactful player for us.”
Aside from that, Malone was pleased with his teams’ performance on Wednesday night considering how tough of a season it has been. He said that sometimes he tends to overlook the wins if the win wasn’t pretty but then he reminds himself to put things in perspective.
“I have to remind myself to enjoy the wins,” Malone said. “It wasn’t pretty. We didn’t play great, could we have played better of course we could.”
Malone went on to say that he has been coaching for close to 22 years and the one thing that has really stood out to him is the fact that teams don’t practice anymore. That’s something that has been weighing heavy on him this season. He’s a man of habit and routine which the Nuggets haven’t quite mastered yet.
“We never practice anymore,” Malone said. “And I’m getting upset with our guys but there’s so much game slippage and mistakes are made and it’s not just us. When I watch every other team play it’s the same thing. And because you don’t practice, you don’t have the same habits that you want. And that’s what drives me crazy. I’m a habit driven preaching driven person and when you don’t have that sometimes it’s infuriating and I just got to calm the hell down. I really do. I got to calm down. I got to love my players, support them, help them, teach them, coach them because this is not an easy season and for us to be 26-21 I’m really proud of my group. I really am.”
The Nuggets still sits in sixth in the Western Conference standings with a 26-21 record. They head to New Orleans next to take on the Pelicans and then have three more games on the road after that before heading home.
The Nets are on a three-game losing streak and sit in fourth in the Eastern Conference standings with a 29-19 record. They played without their big three Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden but had some other players step up. Rookie Cam Thomas put up a career-high 25 points on 8-14 shooting from the field and 4-6 from downtown. Veteran Patty Mills scored 21 points while LaMarcus Aldridge had 18 points and eight rebounds.