Unlike the first home game of the season against Minnesota, the Nuggets came out tonight with fire and passion. With a mixture of offensive ball movement and (surprisingly) stout defense from the bigs of JJ and Kenneth, Denver pushed the lead to as much as eleven. A strong push by the Jazz bench (or poor play by the Nuggets bench), saw that lead shrink to five by the end of the 1st.
The Denver bench came out looking to make up for that end to the quarter, pushing the lead back up to nine in the first three minutes – then promptly gave it back. A string of missed shots by Jokic at the rim (after admittedly amazing moves) led to wide open jumpers that the Jazz buried. When the starters began to be substituted back in, the lead stood at six. The rest of the quarter was back and forth, until the starters decided that making baskets was something better left to the Jazz. Halftime score finds Denver up 42-40.
