The Denver Nuggets’ defense is in such a bad place right now that the team ended up in a shootout with the NBA’s worst offense on Monday, and lost — the Dallas Mavericks out-gunned the Nuggets 131-121.
The Nuggets, who came into the night with the league’s best offense with a rating of 124, hosted the Mavs, who had a 106 offensive rating coming into the game. It was the Nuggets who blinked first, not scoring for five straight minutes in the fourth quarter, giving the Mavs a lead they’d never relinquish. And it was during that stretch that the Nuggets did not have Jamal Murray, who injured his right ankle in the third quarter before returning, then leaving and not coming back again.
“Throughout the game, we’re scoring the ball so easily that sometimes you can fall into that, and you’re just getting up and down. That’s not going to win you games consistently,” David Adleman said after the game. “We finally had a bad quarter offensively in the fourth quarter. That’s part of the NBA, that stuff happens. That’s why you have to be consistent with your defensive effort. And it was not. We had given them confidence. They’d seen the ball go in, and now your defense sometimes is victimized because they’ve gotten in a rhythm, and they did.”
It was such an offensive game for the most part that not one, but two youngsters — one from each side — set career scoring highs in the contest (Spence Jones and Ryan Nembhard). It proved to be the fourth-straight home loss, in line to a T with the others at Ball Arena that have come recently without Christian Braun and Aaron Gordon, where the team just simply could not play any defense.
“You start to play a pickup game. If you play a pickup game with NBA teams, they can score. All these guys could score. That’s why they’re getting paid a lot of money to play the sport,” Adleman said. “When teams feel like they’re in the game in the third quarter and they saw the ball going in, we tried to compete better defensively, but at that point, it’s too late; they found a rhythm in how they want to play. Have to be more consistent with our effort. I’m not going to come in here any night and sit down and talk about guys that are out. We have enough here to be more consistent defensively.”
Jones is one of those players out there to play defense, particularly with the injury bug going around. But it was his offense that turned heads, scoring a career high 28 points — keeping his heater, where he’s either matched or set new career highs in each of the last three games.
“I’m out there for defense,” Jones said. “Despite having all the points, everything like that, defense is what we needed tonight. And I could have provided more of it.”
The sophomore was outdone by the rookie Nembhard, who also notched 28 points but dished it 10 times. And a second rookie, first overall pick Copper Flagg, balled. The Duke star tallied 24 points and snagged eight rebounds while being a game-high plus-13 in his 33 minutes of action. It was an outpouring led by Anthony Davis’ game-high 32 points that equated to the struggling Mavs second-best scoring night in regulation on the young season, behind 52% shooting from deep.
“The stat that stands out to me is we only had 11 personal fouls, which says you’re not putting your hands on people and they’re running free. And they did. Nembhard had a career night, and Flagg got going,” Adleman said. “I think we’re doing it (being physical) for short periods of time. And I don’t know if that’s an energy thing or not, but if I have to play more people, I will.”
Nikola Jokic had a historic first quarter, notching 12 points, nine rebounds and five assists — only ever achieved by Kevin Durant and Kobe Bryant since the NBA started tracking in 1996. The big fella had a triple-double in the third quarter again and tallied 29 points, 17 rebounds and 12 assists, playing point guard and his usual center for much of the night.
He was in that spot because of Murray’s injury. The star guard fell twice in the game, twisting his ankle. The leg issues pop up just as he’s having an All-Star start to the year and looks as spry as ever — he had 10 points, seven assists and four rebounds at halftime while throwing down a monster dunk and tossing a slick spinning pass. But he stepped on Jones’ foot just before halftime came back in the second half and fell again and returned only briefly.
“I don’t know how he’s doing… Jamal is tough, so if he sits himself because of the pain, it’s probably — it hurts,” Adleman said. “I’m hoping it was just something that happened tonight and he can get treatment in the next two days, and we can see him come back.”
JAMAL MURRAY THROWDOWN pic.twitter.com/ZzM8QpZzxZ
— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) December 2, 2025
Jamal Murray’s havin fun out there pic.twitter.com/FxK7m3VaGe
— Matt Brooks (@MattBrooksNBA) December 2, 2025
So the Nuggets, who are already down Braun and Gordon, could now be without Murray. And a defense that has spurted in the former two’s absence was joined by a struggling offense in the latter’s absence.
What’s next for the Nuggets
The Nuggets (14-6) have 12 of their next 17 on the road, starting with the Pacers on Wednesday.
“We got to be better at home, we know that,” Adleman said. “I guess the only positive about tonight is going back on the road. So we go play three on the road. It seems like we played well in other people’s gyms. We have to figure out what we’re doing here because we have not played well in Denver.”
The Nuggets have won seven straight on the road.
“We take the foot off the gas a little too early. We do that kind of often, and it’s just that mindset of staying, staying focused throughout it, because we know we’re so talented and it’s great to have that confidence, and sometimes that can turn into arrogance a little bit if you don’t, just don’t stay focused,” Jones said. You go on the road, you expect a harder game, you’ll get more focus out of guys, me being included. Maybe that’s it. I can’t think for everybody. I don’t really know, but we’ve always been the team has always been great at home. So there’s that expectation that we pull through.”
