Nuggets drop to .500 again, blow it at Ball to the Blazers

The Denver Nuggets lost to the Portland Trailblazers 118-110

Nov 2, 2026, 9:57 PM

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The Denver Nuggets didn’t play defense for three quarters, couldn’t rebound for much of the night and weren’t getting their 3-point shots to fall until it was too late — losing to the Portland Trailblazers 118-110.

Denver went up by as much as 14 as Jamal Murray carried a sleepy Nuggets group. But the 35 points from the All-Star guard wasn’t enough to combat the 15 triples hit by Portland as they out-shot Denver from deep. Portland also thrived by getting 16 more rebounds than Denver and their All-Star Deni Avdija scored 28 points.

“We got our ass kicked on the glass,” David Adelman said. “It’s one of the ways in the NBA you can lose a game that you play so well to start, and they claw back into it just by doing that.”

Not only did the win signal some of the same issues that have plagued the Nuggets for years now — rebounding, shooting and defending the triple and the second unit’s playability — pop up, but Denver dropped to Portland for the first time in 19 games in Colorado. It was the Blazers first regular season win in Denver since October of 2016. It also pushed the Nuggets back down to .500 after six games, the third time since the start of 2018 that Denver has found themselves in that spot.

“We’re never going to shoot 50 threes in a game with with the team we have,” Adelman said. “But we can complement the paint points. If we get to the mid 30s in threes, I think we’re in a good spot. But these guys have to be confident.”

The Nuggets got off to a hot start, winning the first quarter 31-19 highlighted by a Trevon Brazile buzzer-beating dunk. The Blazers made their way back into the game with shooting but the Nuggets first 10-0 run of the season gave Denver an eight-point lead at halftime. That’s when Donovan Clingan joined the party. He had 17 points and 18 rebounds. Portland eventually got their first lead at the 9:30 mark of the fourth on a possession with a hoard of offensive rebounds and never looked back.

During Denver’s last-ditch chance to win the game Cameron Johnson got hurt while making a critical pass to Murray. While Murray’s shot fell, Johnson couldn’t get back on defense and left the game injured and Denver let up a triple where Johnson was supposed to be — putting an end to the Nuggets effort. There was no update to Johnson immediately after the game.

The Nuggets bench only scored four points in the second half, and lead bench gunner DeMar DeRozan was a minus-9. Game-worst for Denver was Aaron Gordon, who was minus-14.

Nikola Jokic still managed 26 points, nine rebounds, eight helpers and four steals — though it was a pretty quiet night for the big fella. But through six games, Murray has been the team’s best player — he’s the first Nugget ever with three games of 35 or more points in the team’s first half dozen to start a season.

“Everybody can be better,” Adelman said. “It’s just it’s too much responsibility for our two guys. And like I said, I have extreme trust in the others, and they have to have trust in themselves. And these kind of games, when it gets grimy, and you’re the guy that’s open, you guys shoot it.”