Nuggets get jobbed on late-game call, Malone ejected in key loss

If the Denver Nuggets lose a Game 7 on the road during this coming postseason, fans will likely point back at Thursday’s ref show as a reason why that hypothetical winner-take-all-game wasn’t at Ball Arena.

Entering Crypto.com Arena to face the Clippers, the Nuggets controlled their own destiny: if they won their final six games they would take the No. 1 seed in the West for a second-straight season and secure home court. But any single setback would allow both the Wolves and Thunder to send Denver down to third place. That loss came for the Nuggets, in 102-100 fashion in a very questionably officiated game that saw Denver head coach Michael Malone ejected for voicing his displeasure.

Malone got run with just eight minutes to go in the fourth quarter at a critical juncture in the game when a red-hot Nikola Jokic just checked back into the contest down a few possessions. Denver found a shot for Michael Porter Jr. that clanked but a late closeout from big man Ivica Zubac sent the Nuggets forward awkwardly to the ground. The two made contact and the play was obviously a foul by any letter of the law. That law, was not followed but you can read it below.

According to the NBA’s video rulebook, “Defenders must give airborne shooters the opportunity to land safely. Whether intentional or not, this is a dangerous play, and there is potential for injury. A Flagrant Foul, Penalty 1 is defined as contact that is unnecessary The penalty for a Flagrant 1 is two free throws for the offended player, and his team would also retain possession of the ball. Note also that any called foul that could potentially be ruled flagrant, will be reviewed via Instant Replay, to determine if it is a Flagrant 1, a Flagrant 2, a Technical Foul, or a common foul.”

The play was not reviewed or even whistled, instead the Nuggets were called for a foul seconds later on defense and then Malone was whistled for two technicals and tossed out of the game. Malone appeared to use foul language, likely because he was profusive about how correct he was and how his team was wronged.

“I got thrown out on that play. I thought Michael was fouled up high and down low on that three-point attempt,” Malone said postgame. “And when you watch the replay, the way he fell back on his leg, you know that was a little scary there.”

The sequence was between a six-and-eight-point swing when factoring in the free throws the Nuggets didn’t get, the possession they didn’t get back and instead the technical free throws and free throws the Clippers got on the other side. The entire thing is in the video embedded below.

Nuggets coach Michael Malone is ejected. Reggie Miller agrees with the coach's argument.

"That's a foul. I mean that's a clear-cut foul…The official, Aaron Smith, was right in front of the play. How could you NOT see that? I mean, that's been a point of emphasis." pic.twitter.com/srkE8qdkwE

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 5, 2024

The Nuggets blew a 17-point first-half lead only to have to climb back from double digits in the second half to make it a game. Denver’s bench was a minus-25 and scored just nine points on Thursday. The Nuggets also struggled to shoot, going 17-for-25 (68.0%) on free throws and 11-for-35 (31.4%) on three-pointers. There were other reasons people can point to why Denver lost on Thursday but the margin of error is generally pretty small when on the road against a team boasting several Hall of Famer.

The Clippers shot seven more free throws in the game despite PJ Tucker appearing to foul Jokic multiple times per possession while in the game. The soon-to-be-MVP scored 36 points on 24 shots while snagging 17 rebounds and 10 assists for his 129th career triple-double.

“It’s eye-opening because when you watch the film, and you see the usage rate and the number of times that we post him up and play inside and we are one of the league leaders in paint points per game so we live in the paint we don’t shoot a lot of threes, we’re not a jump shooting team. And then you look at the stat sheet and he’s five of six from the foul line,” Malone said about Jokic. “So sometimes when you watch the film and that’s where you have great conversations with the league, it’s just talking about, what constitutes a foul, and how can Nikola generate more free throw attempts? Because in our eyes, obviously, you know, we think he’s playing to the basket very aggressively. And I understand that it’s a very hard game to referee down there in the post, a lot of contact, and you just got to adjust to the whistle on a game-to-game basis. But Nikola is truly a marvel in terms of every night he knows he’s going to get beat up, he knows he’s going to get hit and that’s just the nature of being down there.”

Jokic’s last bucket came at 56 seconds to cut the Clippers deficit to two, a three-pointer coming on a beautiful play drawn up by the David Adelman-led staff. Denver got a stop but a galloping Aaron Gordon went down on a fastbreak meaning the Nuggets needed another stop for a last-ditch hope. They got another stop but Peyton Watson didn’t know what to do with the ball and Adelman used the team’s final timeout after the second-year player took time and the chance to advance it away from the Nuggets. Jokic’s final attempt missed and Denver was downed.

“The first thing I told our players is I apologized for getting thrown out. In a close game, I got to be there to help them at the end of the game, and that’s on me, I just felt like it was needed to fight for our guys fight for Michael Porter. But as a leader of this team, I got to be more composed and be there to help them get through that crunch time.”

Now Denver is left with five games to play in the season. The Nuggets need to win out and get a loss from each of Minnesota and Oklahoma City in their final six games to snag the No. 1 seed. The three-team race for the top spot is highlighted by a Wolves trip to Colorado on Wednesday.

The Thunder could lose in Indy tomorrow with MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander again sidelined and the team having lost their last two. As for the Wolves, they have two matchups over the weekend with desperate teams in the Suns and Lakers. The question now is, with Jamal Murray still out and Gordon taking a beating on Thursday; will the Nuggets try to go for the five wins and hope to get some help or will they shut it down entirely for rest? Malone has said over and over again that health is paramount, a hint at what the next 10 days may look like at a Mile High.

Given the macro, that seemingly micro seven-point swing in Los Angeles on Thursday may have shaken up the entire west playoff picture and not for the better in Denver—putting multiple rounds of home playoff hosting at risk.