“Soft” Nuggets blow 10-point lead, drop Game 1 to Suns in blowout loss
Jun 8, 2021, 6:44 AM
The Denver Nuggets looked to be in good shape in the third quarter of Monday’s Game 1 in Phoenix, extending their one-point halftime lead to 10 midway through the third quarter. Then suddenly, they weren’t.
The Suns roared back, using a 16-0 run to take a lead that they wouldn’t surrender, outscoring the Nuggets 62-35 over the game’s final 20 minutes. The Nuggets’ defense vanished as the team looked discombobulated on offense, leading their head coach to draw a recent parallel.
“This game, to me, was eerily similar to Game 1 against Portland,” head coach Michael Malone said, referring to the Nuggets’ embarrassing, 123-109 home loss to the Trail Blazers in Game 1 of their first-round series. “I think we had way too many breakdowns tonight from a coverage standpoint. I think seven of their 13 threes tonight were from the corners, and a lot of that was missed assignments, not communicating. We gave up eight ‘and-ones’ tonight. (We) had a soft mentality.”
Aaron Gordon didn’t disagree.
“‘Soft.’ That’s a good way to put it. ‘Scared.’ That’s another way to play it,” Gordon said. “You could choose between those two words, either ‘soft’ or ‘scared,’ that’s what it felt like we were playing like. And then we were just breaking down. We were breaking down defensively; offensively, we weren’t getting into what we needed to get into. We were letting them dictate our offense a little too much.”
Though Nikola Jokic pushed back against the “soft” label that teammate JaMychal Green also used following the loss, the presumptive MVP agreed that there was work to do.
“When things aren’t going our way, we just need to be more decisive,” Jokic said. “We need to know what we are doing as a group.”
The Suns know what they’re doing with Jokic, who had 22 points, nine rebounds and three assists — far below his regular-season average of 8.3 — they’re content with his scoring, eschewing double-teams in favor of clogging passing lanes and keeping Jokic’s creative passing from creating scoring opportunities for his teammates.
The Nuggets now have fewer than 48 hours to take a long, hard look in the mirror and decide if they want to match the Suns’ intensity for 48 minutes. If they can, they’ll head back to Denver with the series tied. If they don’t, it’s hard to imagine what buttons Malone would have left to push.
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NEXT UP: Game 2: Nuggets at Suns (Suns lead, 1-0) | Wednesday, Jun. 9 at 7:30 p.m. | TV: TNT
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NOTES
• Michael Porter Jr. “tweaked” his back, according to head coach Michael Malone, which led to him playing limited minutes in the second half out of an abundance of caution. “I’m always concerned when I see a guy, obviously, having a wrap on his back. I didn’t think, in that second half, Michael was moving the way that I’m used to seeing him move,” Malone explained. “But I just spoke to him, I think he just tweaked it a little bit. He’ll get some treatment tonight, all day (Tuesday), and I fully expect Michael to be ready to go come Wednesday.” Porter Jr. finished with 15 points on 8-for-15 shooting and had seven rebounds.
• Monte Morris had a disastrous night Monday, shooting 1-for-10 in 23 minutes, including 0-for-4 from three-point range. He had six assists and a pair of steals, but his plus/minus of -28 was by far the Nuggets’ worst.
• Aaron Gordon’s role in the Nuggets’ offense continued to increase in Monday’s Game 1; Gordon went 8-for-14 from the field for 18 points. Those 14 shot attempts were second on the team to Nikola Jokic, and he led the team with three steals while covering three different positions over the course of the game.
• JaMychal Green was effective again in Game 1. One of the team’s unsung heroes in their Game 6 closeout of the Trail Blazers, Green had 10 points and a team-leading 11 rebounds in 23 minutes, and was one of the few Nuggets whose effort didn’t wane. Green said that the Nuggets played “soft” after Monday’s loss.
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THE FINAL WORD
“When we beat Portland in four games, we were the aggressor. We were the more physical team, and that has to be the case. We’re undermanned. There’s a reason no one’s giving us a chance to win this series. We have to bring our best version of ourselves — tonight we didn’t get that from a lot — and we’ll need it come Wednesday night.” — Michael Malone.
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ROTATION (MINUTES)
Starters
G Facundo Campazzo (36)
G Austin Rivers (31)
F Michael Porter Jr. (31)
F Aaron Gordon (29)
C Nikola Jokic (36)
Bench
F JaMychal Green (23)
G Monte Morris (23)
F Paul Millsap (13)
G Markus Howard (8)
F Bol Bol (2)
F Vlatko Cancar (2)
G Shaquille Harrison (2)
F Zeke Nnaji (2)
C JaVale McGee (DNP-CD)
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INJURY WATCH
• Will Barton (hamstring) was injured on Apr. 23. Coach Michael Malone said Barton will be out “for the foreseeable future” on Apr. 24, but it’s possible that he could return in the Nuggets’ second-round playoff series.
• P.J. Dozier (right hip tightness) left the May 3 game and is out indefinitely. His availability for the Nuggets’ second-round playoff series is unclear.
• Jamal Murray (torn left ACL) was injured in the final minute of the Apr. 12 game. His season is over, and realistically, Murray will be out until at least the 2022 All-Star break.
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Shawn Drotar is the host of “The Fan Late Night with Shawn Drotar;” weeknights from 10:00 p.m. to midnight — only on 104.3 The Fan
