Sometimes it just isn’t your night. Over the course of an 82-game regular season, a team goes through several sluggish performances, and one came for the Denver Nuggets in a 132-103 loss to the LA Clippers Friday. LA grabbed a double-digit lead within the opening minutes of the game and never looked back, which essentially put the two teams in a tie for the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference.
"They didn't feel us on either end," Nuggets head coach Michael Malone said. "They got whatever they wanted. We couldn't run offense because they took us out of our stuff. We just allowed them to do it for 48 minutes."
The Nuggets struggled mightily on the offensive end out of the gates. Through the first four minutes of the game, Denver had scored just four points. Meanwhile, the Clippers had dropped 14 points in that stretch and had built an early double-digit lead. Things didn’t get much better for the Nuggets throughout the remainder of the quarter, as LA continued to dominate on both ends of the floor. Nikola Jokić put his stamp on the game early with 10 points and five rebounds in the quarter and Denver’s second unit immediately had an impact, but the Clippers held a 37-37 lead after one.
Reggie Jackson continued to torch Denver to begin the second quarter, as he dropped 10 points in his first seven minutes of action. Despite LA’s continued success on the offensive end, Jerami Grant and Denver’s second-unit kept the game competitive. With 12 points in his first 10 minutes (including two 3-pointers), Grant kept the deficit at 10 midway through the second frame. Unfortunately for the Nuggets, they wouldn’t get much closer during the remaining minutes of the first half, as LA secured a 66-56 lead heading into break.
It was more of the same to begin the second half for the Nuggets, who continued to struggle defensively as the Clippers built their lead up to 14 early in the third quarter. Although Jokić continued to have plenty of success, he was no match on his own for the Clippers’ two-way play. As a result, LA’s lead nearly doubled, as the Clippers held a 98-79 advantage heading into the final quarter.
There wasn’t much to decide in the fourth quarter, but the Clippers still built on their lead. Denver’s deficit swelled up to 25 after four minutes in the final frame. Denver’s second unit wasn’t able to match up with LA’s dynamic bench, which continued to push the lead. The Clippers finished with 73 bench points on the night, compared to 49 for the Nuggets. Malone went to his deep reserves midway through the quarter to run out the remaining minutes.
"They're a good team, but I'm very disappointed in our competitive spirit and effort tonight," Malone added.
Here are three takeaways from Denver’s loss:
Defensive struggles continued
Although the Nuggets have had some bright moments on the defensive end of the floor over the past four games, their defense has slipped recently and that was evident on Friday. Denver’s 111.2 defensive rating in the past three games before the clash in LA ranked 14th in the league and was a significant drop from the 108.2 rating it has posted on the season as a whole.
The Clippers took advantage early, dropping 37 points in the first quarter alone. Four players scored in double-figures for LA in the first half, which included 33 points off the bench. A 32-point third quarter pushed the Clippers’ lead to 19 points, which all but ended the game. Ultimately, the Clippers shot 53.3 percent from the field and 18-of-39 (46.2 percent) from beyond the arc in the dominant performance.
"We win together, we lose together," Malone said. "We were awful tonight. Give them credit, they sent a message and came out and hit us in the mouth, and we never responded."
Turnovers and poor transition play fueled LA’s success
In what has become a theme for the Nuggets since the All-Star break, the inability to take care of the ball and limit transition opportunities played a key role in Friday’s tough loss. Heading into Friday’s contest, Denver averaged 17 turnovers per game over the past three games. While the Nuggets only committed 15 turnovers Friday, several came in the third quarter as Denver attempted to make a comeback.
"It's something that we're trying to figure out," Malone said when asked about the turnover problem. "It's been a huge problem. When you're playing against a quality team like the Clippers and turn the ball over, you're going to make it near-impossible to win on the road against a team like that."
Additionally, the success LA had as a result of those turnovers fueled a big offensive night. The Clippers scored 24 points directly off of Denver’s turnovers, while they finished with 16 fast break points on the night. Come playoff time, the value of each possession is magnified, thereby making it of the utmost importance that the Nuggets figure out their turnover issues in the coming games.
"I learned when I was a young kid to read what the defense gives you," Malone added. "We're not reading the defense at all, we're just trying to force things that are not there. We'll get back at it and clean this up and hopefully, we can get back to competing at a high level."
It was a Jokić and Grant two-man show
There weren’t many positives for the Nuggets in Friday’s loss, but the impressive offensive performances from Jokić and Jerami Grant were bright spots. The two combined for 41 points, 13 rebounds and three steals in the road loss.
Grant’s play follows up his career-high 29-point outing against the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday, while Jokić’s performance just continued his MVP level of play during 2020. With the potential for this duo to be the frontcourt of the future for Denver, Friday’s game was another example of the dynamic play the two can provide.
"We’ve had a lot of bad losses," Jokić said. "Maybe this one is, as you guys say, a little bit more important but this isn’t the end of the road. We’ve had a lot of losses to teams with worse records than them and we’ve responded well.”