Nuggets sleepwalk through blowout loss as trade deadline looms

Despite an opportunity to set a new franchise record with their seventh consecutive road win on Wednesday, a disinterested-looking Denver team found themselves on the wrong end of a 135-111 drubbing at the hands of the Toronto Raptors, now stationed in Tampa due to COVID-19 travel restrictions in Canada — and losers of nine straight games prior to their all-around beatdown of the Nuggets.

“The most frustrating aspect for me was a complete lack of effort; all around, from top to bottom,” Nuggets head coach Michael Malone said. “That was an embarrassing performance. We played with zero energy, zero effort. That’s what happens when you play in this league, against any team. You can get your ass kicked. That’s exactly what happened tonight.”

The Raptors, however, had plenty of energy. In what was expected to be stalwart Kyle Lowry’s last game with the team, given the NBA’s trade deadline on Thursday, Toronto bombed away early and often, hitting 59 percent of their three-point attempts on the way, finishing with a mind-bending 24-for-48 behind the arc to rack up 72 of their 135 points on the night — and setting a new record for the most allowed by a Nuggets team in a single game.

Asked if the trade deadline might have been on some of his teammates’ minds during the game, star center Nikola Jokic didn’t mince words. “I don’t know. If they are, they are not professionals. First, you represent yourself and then you represent [your] team,” he said. “If you want to get traded, you don’t play for yourself or [the] Nuggets, in this case. You play for all 29 other teams. It’s something that cannot happen. I don’t see that. I mean, for me, it’s unprofessional.”

While Jokic specified that he didn’t see that from the Nuggets on Wednesday, more than a few of them — Will Barton, Gary Harris, Bol Bol, R.J. Hampton and Zeke Nnaji — have been mentioned as potential fits around the league.

In a tweet on Wednesday morning, Hampton summed things up: “In this life, you gotta have thick skin.” The Nuggets, or whatever may be left of them on Thursday afternoon, have little time to worry; they travel to New Orleans, where they have a rematch with the Pelicans on the Friday.

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NEXT UP: Nuggets (26-18) at Pelicans (19-24), Friday, Mar. 26 at 6:00 pm

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TEAM NOTES:

• The trade deadline is 1:00 p.m. on Thursday afternoon, and the Nuggets have been involved in a number of trade scenarios, including Orlando’s Aaron Gordon, Sacramento’s Harrison Barnes and New Orleans’s Lonzo Ball. Gordon is likely the Nuggets’ primary target, but the Magic have other suitors, including the Celtics, who have reportedly offered a pair of first-round picks for the athletic, 25-year-old forward, who is signed through next season. Barnes, 28, is also signed through next season, but the Kings have appeared reticent to deal, believing that they could contend for a playoff spot as soon as next season. Ball, 23, would provide the Nuggets with something they desperately need — a reliable ball-handler to play alongside Jamal Murray. The second overall pick in the 2017, Ball will be a restricted free agent at season’s end, and could be in line for a salary in the $16-18 million range.

• The Nuggets’ bench scored a total of 41 points on the night, but that number disguises how ineffective they truly were against the Raptors. Before the game got entirely out of hand, and coach Michael Malone pulled his starters in the final frame, the bench had only scored a total of 11 points over the first three quarters.

• The Raptors’s televised version of the game featured the first all-women broadcast crew in NBA history on Wednesday night. TSN’s Kate Beirness and Amy Audibert hosted in-studio, while Meghan McPeak called the play-by-play and Kia Nurse served as analyst. Kayla Gray reported from the sideline.

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PLAYER NOTES:

• G Monte Morris missed his seventh game with a quadriceps injury, and the Nuggets have missed him. Without Morris’s steadiness as a ball-handler and floor general, coach Michael Malone’s been forced to lean more heavily on 30-year-old rookie Facundo Campazzo, whose occasional wizardry in the passing game also leads to alarming inconsistency. Morris is doubtful for Friday’s game against Pelicans in New Orleans.

• F Paul Millsap, notably, was the only Nugget that discussed how thinking about the trade deadline can affect players; something that teammate Nikola Jokic called “unprofessional” and coach Michael Malone called “mumbo-jumbo.” Millsap’s take? “We’re humans. A lot of fans don’t know that, obviously. We are human beings. It’s just like anybody else, whose job could be on the line of relocating and moving the whole family in a situation. It’s a tough thing to do, but it’s part of the job description… Nobody likes to be relocated”

• G Will Barton has been playing well in March, but had one of those nights in Wednesday’s loss, going 0-for-8 from the field, including 0-for-3 from three-point range. In 23 minutes on the court, Barton contributed only three rebounds, a steal and a block while also having two turnovers, leading to a disastrous -20 on the night.

• F Michael Porter Jr. was scorching the three-point line on Wednesday, hitting 5-of-6 treys and 7-of-13 overall to score 19 points and grab eight rebounds in only 19 minutes. Once the subject of nearly every trade rumor surrounding the Nuggets, Porter’s play this season — at both forward positions — has elevated him to “untouchable” status; the Nuggets no longer have any interest in dealing him whatsoever.

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THE FINAL WORD: “If you want to be a good team — which we say we want to be — you can’t have performances like this. I don’t buy into all that mumbo-jumbo, ‘trade deadline anxiety;’ this, that and the other thing. They [the Raptors] got guys in their locker room that have ‘trade deadline anxiety’ as well. Guess what? They went out there and balled tonight.” — Coach Michael Malone, on the Nuggets’ indifferent performance in their blowout loss Wednesday.

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INJURY WATCH:

• G Gary Harris (left adductor strain) sat out the Feb. 21 game and is expected to miss more time. On Mar. 17, coach Michael Malone said that Harris was out for the “foreseeable future.”

• F Greg Whittington (knee) last played on Mar. 15 and is considered week-to-week.

• G Monte Morris (quadriceps) missed the Mar. 13 game and is considered day-to-day.

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ROTATION (MINUTES):

Starters:

G Jamal Murray (35)

F-G Will Barton (23)

F Michael Porter Jr. (29)

F Paul Millsap (22)

C Nikola Jokic (30)

Bench:

G-F P.J. Dozier (20)

F Zeke Nnaji (19)

G Facundo Campazzo (18)

G R.J. Hampton (13)

C-F Bol Bol (9)

F JaMychal Green (9)

F Vlatko Cancar (7)

G Markus Howard (7)

C-F Isaiah Hartenstein (DNP-CD)

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