POST GAME THREAD: Nuggets let one slip away against the Mavericks 116-115 | Dec 6, 2022

39 comments

1. Cannot stop rewinding Jokic’s FT miss. Idk how he is not a 90% FT shooter when his FT technique is perfect and he’s arguably the GOAT midrange shooter.

2. Lost by 1 correctly penalized take foul

3. [deleted]

4. Nuggets losing to 3 teams on the end of their back to backs is just plain bad. Those are the games you need to take advantage of. On the upside, Braun playing significant minutes helped save the bench.

5. The good, we are roughly 1/4 into the season.

   The bad, our defense needs some serious work

6. That was a really smart foul by Dallas when there was still a lot of time on the clock where Jokic missed the free throw. Really frustrated me, felt like it took us out of rhythm. Then they go down and make 2 clutch ones after.

7. Gg: AG (best Nugget), Jok (although passive), BB (in the clutch), Christian (nice defense)

   Everyone else: Mid to trash

8. I felt like Malone coached a pretty good game tonight besides running out of timeouts. If Zeke and CB don’t get more minutes after this then idk what to say man

9. MPJ is key. When they double Jokic we need MPJ available to can the three and create gravity for Jamal to work

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11. Dare I say it that AG & Jokic were underutilized this game? AG was dominating anybody who guarded him, and Jokic always had a double team coming his way. I think a bucket could be found by getting the ball in each of their hands more often.

12. Despite how annoying Luka is the guy absolutely plays his heart out. Cannot say the same about Jokic this year.

13. Kinda scared our success may rely on MPJ. Ever since he’s been out, we’ve been rocky. I say “scared” because that means we have to rely on him being healthy which is far from a sure thing.

14. I think my biggest worry with the first 24 games to start the season is I’m becoming less and less confident that what we are seeing right now isn’t the norm, and that it will get meaningfully better with the given personnel on the roster.

    In my eyes the teams primary concerns, in order, are:

    1. 3pt defense when Jokic is on the floor
    2. Paint defense in general, but especially when Jokic is off the floor
    3. Ball security when Jokic is off the floor
    4. Defending without fouling while Jokic is off the floor
    5. Paint Scoring when Jokic is off the floor
    6. Defensive rebounding when Jokic is off the floor
    7. Forcing more TOVs when Jokic is off the floor
    8. Team FT Shooting.

    Maybe at full health, a bench of Bones + BB + CB + Jeff + Zeke with Vlatko as a utility player can help improve some of those “Jokic off” concerns. And maybe maybe MPJ starting with BB 1st off the bench does actually represent some secret sauce for team 3pt defense in the halfcourt with Jokic.

    I guess I am very skeptical of each of those happening, let alone both in any meaningful and sustained way.

15. One positive from the game is that even though we lost, I liked the rotations better tonight.

16. The Mavs had a good night and the Nugg’s main ball handler (Murray) had a bad night. It’s 1/4 into the season and this team has a lot of room to grow on defense & Jamal is still getting up to speed. I looked just today, & 7 of the top 12 players in MPG on the Nugget’s weren’t playing last year. Only MPJ, Murray, & Jokic were on the team for all of 2020-21. Gordon came in, but those 4 have barely played together. The defense is definitely a work in progress, but I think it looked pretty good compared to the past. Definitely something to keep working on, but I still think this team has a ton of talent. It just comes down to managing the mindset, & work ethic. The talent is definitely there for this team, even with these losses.

    https://preview.redd.it/vcari0illg4a1.png?width=1040&format=png&auto=webp&s=4874d15bc74b688ba6577bef9c461e474e6cc000

17. I’m not looking forward to playing Anfernee Simons smh

    Just play bad dude

18. unrelated but 60 fouls combined tonight jfc everything just becomes a slog at that point

19. I cannot get over how stupid the double on Luka was. The dude was 5-17!!

20. I’m in Portland for work this week and bought a ticket to Thursdays game. What a mistake

21. Zeke, Braun, Bones, & Green all played well tonight. Definitely room for improvement still, but I liked the bench a lot more than the past. Cancar was rough when he was out there, but I know he’s smart and can bounce back. Bench unit will look even better with MPJ/Brown out there.

22. Best part of the game was that Gordon 3 at the end of the second quarter

23. I hope bones learns how to chill out against top teams. Spurs Rockets and OKC, sure, play with sauce when up big. But you really had to do a stupid ass behind the back pass to Braun at million mph. It was a great defensive possession that you finished off. But we lose 2 points then give up 3 on a Luka and 1. Not back breaking, but fast breaks have to end with a shot at least.

24. Imagine leaving Michael Porter Jr open to double Aaron Gordon at the 3pt line for the gamewinner.

    That’s what the Nuggets did.

25. I’m scared to play the blazers again. What the fuck is this scheduling tho. This should be a fucking home game

26. Having trouble seeing any positives. We’re obviously nott a bad team but it’s looking like we’re just the middle of playoff team as usual. Not real contenders. Gave it 25 games but it appears we can’t beat any team that is decent. I’m sure people will say I’m a doomer or whatever but the talent should be there the effort isnt.

27. Not scared of Grant, Simons or Dame.

    Pick a random guard that plays a bit but isn’t a known scorer. I’m scared of him.

28. Not gonna lie kinda hope we keep losing so some major changes get made in the org. Not ok with wasting Jokic’s prime years with these mediocre results.

    Not gonna pretend I know what the Nuggets should do. It’s clear defense is a major problem though and with Malone being a self professed “defensive coach” a good portion of the blame needs to start falling on him.

    I think he has the rest of the season to improve the team or it might be time to start looking for different coaching options to get more out of this group.

29. > Bones Hyland: “The locker room is definitely frustrated. We’re just giving up games. Literally. It’s stuff that we can control. It’s not out of our control.”

    https://twitter.com/harrisonwind/status/1600372850476605440?s=46&t=NV41xZ4EAi0AAoj2HlMCug

30. Nuggets player of the game definitely Aaron Gordon. But Jokic was getting hot later.

    He definitely had to be a factor in the next 2 games against the Jazz and the Blazers who don’t necessarily have the best defense.

    Braun is another great player tonight shutting down Luka

31. I have 2 things to say:

    1. Good god this fanbase fucking sucks. People are so entitled and the moment it gets tough it turns into “fire Malone, trade everyone” nonsense. It’s so predictable too. I hate it. (on the bright side I dont see as much of it today as I expected to, but it’s still around somewhat)
    2. I really need to stop watching basketball. It’s just not enjoyable this year at all for multitudes of reasons. The refs are fucking absolute garbage and calling the softest nonsense I’ve seen in awhile (after I thought being pretty good last year until the ASB! The added physicality was good for the game!). The constant complaining from every single player in the league is awful to watch – could really take a page from hockey and have captains who are the only people who can talk to refs. That would be nice. The style of play is painful to watch – the Mavs especially but honestly, the only two teams that actually run somewhat interesting offenses are the Nuggets and Warriors. After that it’s basically a sea of just endless spamming of PnR, PnR, PnR with not a whole lot of variation. Teams have copied our DHO actions too which makes the league even more homogenous. It’s just fucking boring as shit to watch now. Add in the complaining and the soft ass refs and I am pretty pretty done with the NBA right now. It’s not enjoyable anymore, as I said.

32. We gotta pull players as they start getting tired and before they slow down.

    Not the same bench lineups which led to the Vlatko problems. Throw in Braun or Zeke

33. I’ve been a hardcore Denver believer for 4 str8 seasons now, never once doubted our potential all the way back to the slow Jok.Mal rise.

    I have little to no faith in this team to get a top 4 seed at the moment and even if we did the bench would blow it when it matters in the playoffs… I wouldnt mind ditching Malone in January at this rate tbh.

    I hate to say it but I cant stand to see the FO waste another prime Jokic year. We waited 2 FUCKING YEARS of injury to Mal and MPJ for this? This is unacceptable. I’m beginning to realize im a Nikola Jokic fan, not a Denver Nuggets franchise fan. TC is incredibly lucky to have drafted Jok

34. I feel a lot better about this game than the last 2. 4th quarter defense was pretty good. Lots of stops. Nugs lost cause Jamal played like ass and too many first half turn overs. Very fixable stuff.

35. So has Aaron Gordon actually just been the second best Nugget this whole time?

36. I think I’m slowly getting ready to consider AG our full long-term 2nd best player and just see MPJ and Jamal play it out on who becomes the 3rd. Not quite there yet, but getting there. Will have to see how MPJ looks when he comes back and if/when Jamal snaps out of this funk.

37. Malone is moving in the right direction. This would be an easy win with Murray at even normal average efficiency and Porter there. It is most important to give young promising players a chance. It is much better to lose something but gain young energetic players in the rotation.

    Looks like Malone has seen the criticism. It is much more important than one defeat. Don’t forget that Malone has pushed some unpromising players all year in past years. It just needs to continue like this.

    This rotation with Murray’s 20-25 and Porter’s 15-20 is a winning combination.

    New Orleans and Dallas had super hot role players who hit from huge distances over many hands. Denver now has a lot more offensive arsenal than last year and Jokic is not as passive as others are aggressive. If Bones can hit from 25 feet and if Gordon goes into a lot of solo actions it does not mean that Jokic is passive.

    Malone had a great rotation and it was just a couple more points from Murray. The energy from the bench was great. Malone needs to continue this rotation and it will be great. It’s not just bad defense. Some of players from Dallas and New Orleans hit like Steph overhands from huge distances. These are some things that can hardly be defended.

38. The entire team really wanted to win this one, except Jamal, who was complete ass. Having 1 timeout with 6 minutes left and having not used your challenge is also pretty bad, but overall it was a fun game and the rotations were a lot less frustrating.

39. What’s the shock about AG? Everyone was talking about how great a year he’s having lmao