Recap: Nuggets Snatch Defeat From The Jaws Of Victory

First Quarter

The game that happened between the Nuggets and Pelicans was always going to be a rough watch if we’re being honest. At least once Nikola Jokic was ruled out, but this was truly some ugly hoops. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Some people like grimy games, this game fit that. The Nuggets decided to start Dario Saric in the stead of Nikola Jokic, and when the game started he looked better than he had in the first few games of the season. That’s not a high bar by any means, but you could see the vision a little bit. He’s a skilled player, at the very least he knows how to pass and run some sets. The Nuggets need someone who can do that because most of the sets they have are built around a playmaking big (gee I wonder why!).

When playing through Dario, the Nuggets were actually doing decent. The first bucket of the game came off a Jamal Murray 3 pointer that was the result of a DHO with Dario. However, Dario picked up a second foul early, and when he checked out Zeke Nnaji checked in. That didn’t work out to say the least. He was a -15 in 6 minutes, and while not the only reason, he certainly didn’t help matters. Despite being up by 5 when Dario checked out, the Nuggets found themselves down by 10 at the end of the first quarter, and the end of the quarter couldn’t have gone much worse. Russ got shaken up at the end of it, but ended up being okay. He held his ankle for a while and gave people a scare though.

Second Quarter

The starters started the second quarter with Russ instead of Christian Braun, and that lineup worked well enough. With Dario instead of Zeke in, things clicked easier for the Nuggets. They were able to find a rhythm that wasn’t there when Zeke had played. Things started flowing, people started making reads. MPJ was playing well, and found Dario for an easy layup early on in the period. In fact, they were able to eventually tie the game back up and erase the early deficit they had found themselves in. With some buckets from MPJ and other people chipping in, they had gotten it to 40-40, but then the game started to slip again.

Brandon Ingram was starting to cook, scoring over Christian Braun with ease. That was despite Braun playing good defense and getting good contests on his shots. Brandon Boston also had a strong showing with 14 points at half. The story for the Nuggets though would be Michael Porter Jr. He just didn’t go away and kept making shots. At half he finished with 20 points on 12 shots, including 4 of 5 from 3. He was the reason the Nuggets were in it. Jamal Murray, on the other hand, only had 5 points on 2-7 from the field. New Orleans found some easy shots off the Nuggets doubling Brandon Ingram in the midrange. All that added to the Nuggets being down 54-59 at half. There were some adjustments to be made, and some lineups to see. After Dario subbed out, David Adelman didn’t sub Zeke back in. Zeke had a terrible first stint, so he ended up going with Peyton Watson as the 5 in a non-center lineup. There were some perks and some drawbacks, but what they did for the rest of the game would be decided at half.

Third Quarter

The third quarter went about the same as the first half. The Pelicans would get up by 8-10, the Nuggets would bring it back within a possession or two, then they couldn’t score and the Pelicans would make a couple of shots. The Nuggets would then get some free throws and bring it back – do I really need to go on? MPJ cooled off, the team couldn’t score. The entire period they only scored 18 points, and a good portion came off free throws. We did see Vlatko Cancar touch the floor for the first time in a while though, so that was cool. After the third, the Pelicans led 78-72 and the Nuggets had some catching up to do. Jamal Murray still hadn’t even cracked 10 points.

Fourth Quarter

Jamal Murray started to come alive in the fourth. He started off strong in the final frame with 7 points in the first 4 or so minutes, and Russ had some good assists as well. It seemed like it started to click for the Nuggets, but then they had a sloppy run where it was capped off by Dario Saric throwing his fourth turnover of the game. The Nuggets had struggled to give a ton of effort all night long, and it had come back to bite them. They hadn’t gotten back on defense some, hadn’t hit the glass hard – they got outrebounded 58-45, and overall it was just a poor, poor showing. The Pelicans created enough separation from them in the end to pull away, and in a game where they wanted to give the win to Denver, Denver just couldn’t snatch it away. Nuggets fall to the Pelicans 101 to 94.

After such a hot start to the game, MPJ only finished with 24 points, meaning he only scored 4 points in the second half. Despite a decent fourth quarter from him, Jamal Murray only finished with 16 points on 16 shots. The team also regressed to the mean in terms of their 3 point shooting. They shot 10 of 37 from beyond the arc, and a lot of them were open corner 3s. Jamal shot 2/8 from there, Dario and Peyton 1/5, Christian Braun 0/2, Julian Strawther 1/4. It was just a poor effort from the Nuggets tonight and they’ll look to bounce back against the Grizzlies tomorrow where there’s a very real chance they’re missing Joker again.