The Nuggets’ loss on Christmas day was an outlier within the context of this season, in that their offense betrayed them. Their 149-135 loss to the Cavaliers two nights later was more akin to the trend — but in its most extreme form.
Denver trailed by as many as 21 and fell to 8-5 at home this season in Friday’s loss to the NBA-best Cavs, who became the second team in league history to make 20 or more 3-pointers in four consecutive games. The Nuggets (16-13) have not made 20 outside shots in a game this season.
Even their 48.4% performance beyond the arc wasn’t enough to flirt with a comeback. Denver attempted 31 shots from the 3-point line, precisely in line with the team’s league-low season average. Cleveland’s 149 points were the most Denver has allowed in a regulation game during Michael Malone’s 10-year coaching tenure, surpassing New York’s 145-point performance one month ago.
“They’re a great team. They do that every night,” Malone said. “… No one seems to be able to stop that team.”
Four Cavaliers scored at least 20 points, just like when these teams met in Cleveland earlier in December. Donovan Mitchell led them with 33. He was joined by Evan Mobley, Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen. All four of them shot better than 50% from the field. The team shot 58%. Jamal Murray bounced back from a quiet Christmas with 27 points and 11 assists, and Nikola Jokic registered a triple-double, but they were both guilty parties at the defensive end. Everyone was.
Denver’s diagnosis was singular and decisive by the end of the first half. It wasn’t a lack of secondary scoring. Jokic, Murray and Michael Porter Jr. each got their points. (They combined for 43 on 30 shots.) The second unit held its own during Jokic’s rest minutes, with Porter and Murray staggering together while Julian Strawther and Peyton Watson provided sufficient offense off the bench. Rebounding wasn’t lopsided. Cleveland’s second-chance points were limited.
The Nuggets simply couldn’t defend.
Mitchell had multiple heat-check sequences. None of Denver’s guards could keep up with him or Garland around screens. With Aaron Gordon out due to a resurfaced calf strain, Michael Malone started Russell Westbrook instead of the usual replacement, Peyton Watson, to get another defense-oriented guard on the floor against Cleveland’s tandem. But he and Braun struggled to contain. So did Porter, Murray and Strawther. Denver looked like a team that lacked the personnel to handle a matchup like the Cavaliers, and it finally started to show late in the first half during a 21-2 run. As soon as the Nuggets had a momentary lapse in scoring at the requisite pace, they let go of the rope. It was 80-65 at half.
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Double-digit deficits have been no big deal for Denver, but this one felt more akin to the defensive disaster that took place against the Knicks at Ball Arena. Once that four-minute blip in the second quarter was over, the Nuggets were back to being able to score with Cleveland. But they couldn’t get the stops to sustain a comeback, even after Mitchell quieted down. The Cavs hunted 3s in the half-court and in transition. Early in the fourth, when Denver was closest to establishing some life, Evan Mobley buried a couple of long-range killers. Mobley finished the night with 26 points, five rebounds and six assists on 9-of-13 shooting.
Denver missed Gordon against him. He is expected to miss at least Saturday’s game against the Pistons, but his outlook beyond then is unclear, according to Malone. The power forward already missed 10 consecutive games in November with the same injury.
“I don’t like to give timelines because they’re always so hard to gauge with a soft-tissue injury like Aaron has,” Malone said. “But my fingers crossed that this is not a 12-game (absence), like where he missed almost a month last time he had that injury. And that’s why he felt it and kind of looked at me, and I called a timeout to get him out, to get him checked, and then we shut him down because we did not want to get him to that point. Hopefully, we stopped it in time to where it’s going to be much fewer games than the first time.”