Nuggets beat by NBA-best Cavs despite Jokic topping Magic mark

The Denver Nuggets ran into the team with the NBA’s best record on Thursday and the red-hot Cleveland Cavaliers made a point about who is a contender and who isn’t in the 126-114 win in the Forest City.

Denver (11-9) got out to a decent start but couldn’t keep pace with an avalanche of Cavs (20-3) three-point shooting, eventually pacing them on a 17-6 first-quarter run. The Nuggets played much better perimeter defense on Tuesday against the Dubs but that effort didn’t make its way to Ohio, where the Cavs’ nine first-quarter threes set a season mark for the team. It was all too much for the Nuggets, who were down 10 after one despite a monster quarter for Nikola Jokic. The Cavs then hit a 10th three just 13 seconds into the second quarter, ticking off Michael Malone so much that he called a timeout before his team even touched the ball in that period.

“We’re a team that’s trying to find themselves, and I think that’s fairly obvious tonight. They’re a superior team across the board,” Michael Malone said Thursday. “There are stretches where we can’t get a stop and we look like five strangers on the court together, and then I call a time out, I challenge our guys, and we come out, and all sudden, we get back to playing the kind of basketball, that we need to play for 48 minutes. And it’s too inconsistent. It’s too few and far between, and, against the best teams in the league. You’re not going to give yourself a chance when you do that.”

Denver slugged back on a 20-6 run charged by Aaron Gordon, whose recent return from injury has proven to be big. Yet Denver is now just 1-2 in those three games because that’s the only run the Nuggets really had in them. Just before the break, the Nuggets had a chance to take the lead, they didn’t. The third quarter started with a further barrage of Cavs threes, who finished with 22 makes, led by Donovan Mitchell’s six and Caris LeVert’s five makes. To no surprise, the Cavs are leading the NBA in scoring as a team. Meanwhile, the Nuggets shot just 24 times from deep, hitting six.

Denver couldn’t connect from inside either—missing 15 layups and 23 shots in the paint despite scoring 76 down there. And the bench was of no help either, being out-scored 43-16.

“It’s important for all of us, and it starts with me as a head coach to never shy away from that responsibility to really look in the mirror and say, ‘what can I do better? How can I help this team more?’ Not. ‘What can I get out of this,'” Malone told. “I think this is something that we have to get back to playing “we basketball” for each other on both ends of the floor.

The Nuggets played well for moments on Thursday but the Cavs proved to be a train that just kept coming. Mistakes were confounded by the Nuggets all the while a few reoccurring issues for the team this season—like perimeter defense, dealing with ball pressure, three-point shooting and bench contributions—popped up and proved to do Denver in. The Nuggets have some serious work to do to get back to their recent championship form, all the while the Cavs are proving to everyone how serious they are this season.

“Controllable mistakes… now you’re not going to beat that team when you’re beating yourself. They’re just too talented,” Malone said.”I’m so much more concerned about our team right now with where we’re at, and it’s not that we lost tonight. I knew coming in here was going to be a tall order. They’re a really good basketball team Kenny (Atkinson) is doing a great job, so give them credit. I just don’t like how we lost and there’s a big difference.”

Jokic struggled in the second half a bit after his hot start, but he still tallied a 27-point, 20-rebound and 11-assist triple-double on Thursday, which is his ninth of the season. It’s the 139th stat-stuffing of Jokic’s career, which moves him above Magic Johnson for third on the all-time list. Ahead of Jokic now is just Oscar Robertson (181) and teammate Russell Westbrook (200.)

Third most triple-doubles in NBA history belongs to Nikola Jokić 🃏 pic.twitter.com/F1sUC46W5D

— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) December 6, 2024

The Nuggets have two more games left on this road trip where they will also visit Washington and Atlanta over the weekend and then get an extended break of days off.