If you’re not feeling Nuggets fever right now, I don’t know what’s wrong with you. The 2015-16 Nuggets season couldn’t have gotten off to a better start!
The Nuggets didn’t just beat the Houston Rockets, a team that many have as a dark-horse title contender; they destroyed them, winning by 20 and leading from buzzer to buzzer.
Oh, yeah, and they stuck it to Ty Lawson, too.
From top to bottom, it was a near flawless performance. I’m not sure if this is the Nuggets team we’re going to see for the next 81 games, but if anything, I think it was a clear glimpse into the Denver Nuggets’ future.
But let’s break it down. Here are the three biggest takeaways from Wednesday night’s beatdown:
Emmanuel Mudiay showed us everything
I think you have a good idea where this is going, but let’s do it anyway:
PLAYER A: 37 min / 30% field / 66% three / 12 PTS / 6 AST / 4 RBS
PLAYER B: 38 min / 46% field / 60% three / 17 PTS / 9 AST / 5 RBS
In case you didn’t get the general idea of how this game played out, Player B is Emmanuel Mudiay and Player A is Ty Lawson. If Nuggets fans wanted any reassurances that they made the right decision at point guard, they got that and more Wednesday night.
I should probably mention, though, that Mudiay also had 11 turnovers, many of which were really bad, but I wouldn’t be too worried about that; that’s going to happen, especially when you’re playing 38 minutes in your first NBA game against one of the most aggressive defensive teams on the ball and in the passing lanes.
What you should take note of, though, is the fact that Mudiay never backed down; he never curled into a ball, he never got nervous and he never stopped attacking.
And that lead to Mudiay doing something Lawson was never capable of doing: He took over the game.
Throughout his entire career in Denver, all I wanted was for Lawson to be more aggressive, to take over the team and lead them when no one else could, to be a true No. 1 option. He never did that. In Mudiay’s first ever NBA game, he showed us more than Lawson ever had.
For a two minute stretch in the fourth quarter, right after the Rockets had cut the lead to under 10 and the Nuggets were forced to call a timeout, Mudiay put the game back out of reach for good, scoring 7 of the Nuggets next 9 points and assisting on the other two.
We saw Mudiay tell the rest of the Nuggets to clear out so that he could go one-one-one, step back and drop a three-pointer in the Rockets’ face.
… This kid is the real deal. It’s just one game, and he’ll go through plenty of downs this season, but Emmanuel Mudiay is a star.
This was Gary Harris‘ breakout game
First off, as a whole, the Nuggets defense last night was outstanding. Sure, there was some over helping and they were slow to get back out to the three-point shooters at times, but they held one of the NBAs most explosive offensive teams to 85 points in their own building.
Whatever Michael Malone is doing, it’s clearly working. But if there’s one person who stood out more than anybody, it was Gary Harris.
Harris may have only had five points, but his defense on James Harden was superb. And it’s not like Harden wasn’t trying; he took 21 shots on the night, six more than anybody else on the floor, but only converted 29 percent of them.
Really, I’m not sure what else Harris could have done. He looked more like a Snuggie than a shooting guard the way he was blanketing Harden all night. And though he only took seven shots, he looked good in those, too.
Coming into the season, it was a question whether Harris deserved the starting two-guard spot. After the first game, we have our answer.
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[adrotate banner=”9″]These are Michael Malone’s Denver Nuggets
I haven’t seen the Denver Nuggets play this hard and this sound in a long, long time. And it’s not just the energy; it’s doing the simple things right, the basketball smarts.
When I watched Brian Shaw‘s Nuggets, I saw a dumb, undisciplined team. Honestly, I wondered if they even knew what they were doing at times. But that wasn’t the case last night.
The Nuggets were very good on their rotations — we’ll reserve great until we see it on a more consistent basis — and their one-one-one and help defense was impressive, too. Denver had 10 shot blocks on the night, which, aside from a couple huge stuffs by Kenneth Faried, mostly came from the help defender on the back side.
But it was simply the mental toughness that stood out. The Nuggets were playing a team in the Houston Rockets that were in the conference finals just a few months ago and are pegged by many as legitimate title contenders. What’s so impressive isn’t the fact that they played well or won the game but that they withstood every one of the Rockets surges.
In the past, when a team would make a run on the Nuggets, all hell would break loose; they’d fall apart and end up losing by 15 or 20. On Wednesday night, though, the Nuggets stood their ground, and every time the rockets cut the lead down, they immediately pushed it back up over 10.
From top to bottom, every player that got on the floor for the Nuggets made a positive impact, and that falls on the coach. Again, it’s only one game, and we all have to keep reminding ourselves of that, but I can promise you that this won’t be the dysfunctional team we saw last year. Michael Malone won’t let that happen.