The Nuggets will be searching for answers after suffering a second-straight blowout defeat to the Utah Jazz in a 124-87 result in Game 3 of their first-round matchup in the Western Conference Playoffs Friday. Nikola Jokić led the Nuggets with 15 points while Mike Conley paced the Jazz with 27 points in his return to the lineup. Denver will now try to regroup and return to its best when it faces Utah on Sunday night at 7 p.m. MT on ALTITUDE.
"Obviously our performance tonight was nowhere close to being good enough," Nuggets head coach Michael Malone said.
Here are the takeaways: Lethargic start In both Malone’s media availability on Thursday and his pregame presser, he stressed the need for urgency and for his players to be “grown a** men.” Unfortunately, the Nuggets players never found their footing in what might be the team's worst performance of the 2019-2020 season.
After the Nuggets took a 5-4 lead off of a three from Jamal Murray, the Jazz applied pressure and played physically and Malone’s team couldn’t find a way to respond. The team struggled to find any offensive continuity in the first quarter, shooting 6 of 18, including a woeful 22.2 percent from downtown. While the Nuggets would start converting in the second quarter, their issues with three-point defense would reemerge.
"I think the energy [by us] was terrible," Jokić said. "There was no reason, we just didn't know what we were doing...We had energy, it just kind of wasn't in the right way."
The Jazz shot 1 of 9 from downtown in the first quarter, but they would hit 6 of 8 from three in the second quarter. The team also couldn’t defend in the pain either as it was outscored 30-12 inside during the first half. Lastly, the Nuggets were careless with the ball as they gave away 11 turnovers, which the Jazz scored 10 points off. To put things in perspective, Denver had just 11 giveaways in the entirety of its Game 1 win over Utah. Overall, it was a collective unraveling from Denver in the first half, a 24-minute spell they couldn’t recover from. One-dimensional offense The Nuggets have been one of the best offensive teams in the NBA, posting the fifth-best offensive rating (116.9) in the league during the seeding games. For whatever reason, that team appeared to completely forget its offensive principles in an embarrassing showing.
"I just think we have to hold ourselves to a higher standard, individually, as a squad and as a player of this team," Jamal Murray said. "We've got to look in the mirror and come back ready to play." The Nuggets wouldn’t take their first free-throw attempt until late in the second quarter. They only had 11 attempts on the entire afternoon. Despite the depth Denver has in its frontcourt, the team would finish the night being outscored in the paint 48-32.
Defense remains shaky Denver’s inability to force turnovers was painful as it generated just two steals and allowed Utah to have just 10 giveaways on the night. That was just one of several defensive problems that Malone’s team faced on the night. As mentioned in this space on several occasions, the Nuggets are having too many lapses in guarding the three-point line and they are paying dearly for it. In Game 1, the Nuggets held the Jazz to under 40 percent from three and they won by 10. In Games 2 and 3, the team has allowed its opponents to knock down threes at a 45.5 percent rate. In the modern NBA, where both hitting and defending the three is a high priority, that is unacceptable. What is even more worrying is the team’s newfound issues, guarding the paint. Rudy Gobert is an All-Star and a two-time Defensive Player of the Year. While he can provide help on the offensive end, that’s not his strength. To see Utah’s leading center drop 20 points on 9-of-11 shooting with all low post buckets is concerning.
"They're playing at a different level than us right now," Malone said. "We have to somehow find a way to not only match but exceed that going into Game No. 4."