The Nuggets defeated the Suns, 130-112, on a back-to-back for both teams Saturday night in Phoenix. They improved to 14-5 with the win, staying unbeaten this year after a loss. Here are three takeaways.
Turnover trend
“Maybe everybody needs to be a little more aggressive, holding them, using two hands and (testing) the officials, I think,” Nikola Jokic told The Denver Post on Friday when asked about Denver’s recent defensive woes. “Because that’s what they do to us.”
His pointed remark spoke to both of the Nuggets’ defining failures in a 139-136 loss that eliminated them from the NBA Cup: their lack of physicality and point-of-attack containment, as well as their 17 turnovers, which turned into 30 San Antonio points.
The Nuggets haven’t lost much this season, but at least two things are usually true when they do. In four of their five defeats, they’ve lost the turnover battle. And in four of their five losses, their opponent has coughed it up fewer than 10 times.
That makes their bounce-back win Saturday a bit of an anomaly. The Nuggets committed 16 turnovers to Phoenix’s seven. They committed five before they scored their first points, a troubling start that seemed to foreshadow lethargy. In several stretches of the game, Denver got loose with the ball. The Suns scored 23 points off the turnovers, many of them live-ball mistakes.
But when the Nuggets are simply able to “throw the ball at the rim,” as Jamal Murray put it this weekend, good things tend to happen. They shot 58% from the field and from 3-point range in the win, led by a 7-for-11 outing beyond the arc by Tim Hardaway Jr. Spencer Jones made four 3s in a breakout offensive game. Murray knocked down five. The team’s 22 made 3s were its most since April 6, 2024.
The turnover battle trend will be worth monitoring as the season develops more. Denver forces only 12.6 per game, second-fewest in the NBA, meaning the burden is on the offense to play clean on a consistent basis.
Road warriors
Typically a franchise that takes advantage of its unique home-court advantage, the Nuggets have strangely lost three consecutive home games but won seven straight on the road.
They’ve also won their last 10 road games that have occurred on the second leg of a back-to-back. Their only loss on 24 hours of rest this season was at home to Sacramento.
Jokic continues to be at his best when you’d think his legs would be heaviest. Playing with his left wrist bandaged up — he re-aggravated a sprain against San Antonio — he still went for 26 points, nine rebounds and 10 assists in a near-perfect shooting game. The star center made all six of his shots from the floor and 10 of 11 free-throw attempts. The Suns switched a ton with small-ball lineups and tried to bring the physicality to him, as he pointed out Friday.
In four back-to-backs this season, Jokic is averaging 39.3 points, 12 boards and 11.8 assists.
Brown also plays through injury
Bruce Brown came up limping after a hard landing under the basket Friday and was officially diagnosed with a right knee sprain on the Nuggets’ injury report; he told The Denver Post he hyperextended it.
Nonetheless, he joined his teammates on the quick trip to Phoenix and played through it, providing steady play-making when nobody else could. Even Jokic and Murray were responsible for five turnovers each, despite their overall effectiveness. Brown hasn’t been a clean finisher in transition at the rim this year, but he compiled a season-high 10 assists and just one turnover in the win.
That’s in addition to the defensive tenacity he usually brings to the game. Denver needs that from him more than ever right now, with Aaron Gordon and Christian Braun nursing their own injuries. The recent second-unit look with Brown, Hardaway, Jones, Zeke Nnaji and Jonas Valanciunas has been giving David Adelman solid minutes.
Brown’s injury will be another to monitor in upcoming games, as the Nuggets are not well positioned to sustain more long-term losses than they already have. They host the Mavericks on Monday.