Nuggets offense M.I.A. again as Charlotte cruises past Denver

After a 2016-17 season where the Denver Nuggets fielded the league’s best offense after Dec. 15, few thought their play on that end of the floor would be a concern heading into this year.

Nuggets’ coach Michael Malone even said that he’s not worried about the offense at times this season, but with the addition of Paul Millsap, a rising Jamal Murray and most of the cast back from last year’s team, Denver’s struggles on offense so far this year, which were evident in their 110-93 loss to the Charlotte Hornets Wednesday night, continue to raise eyebrows.

Over the course of tonight’s first half, the Nuggets played their worst 24 minutes of basketball since Dec. 15 of last season — the date Denver’s season turned when Nikola Jokic became the Nuggets’ starting center. Denver, who’s embarking on a crucial early-season four-game East Coast road trip which takes them from Charlotte to Atlanta, and then to Brooklyn and New York, came out and shot just 16-50 (30.6 percent) in tonight’s first half.

On defense, Denver supplied minimal resistance against a Hornets team that knocked down their open shots over the first two quarters. Charlotte shot 60 percent from the field and converted on ten of their 20 three-point attempts as they raced out to a 62-53 halftime lead.

In that first half, Denver’s point guards — Jamal Murray and Emmanuel Mudiay — combined to shoot 4-18. Gary Harris, who suffered his worst game in recent memory Monday when he shot just 1-6 against the Wizards, converted just 2-8 of his field goals over the first two quarters. Harris did rebound with a 13-point third quarter and had one of the better games up and down the Nuggets’ roster.

Denver was able to curtail their turnover problems and finished with just 13 tonight. But turnovers proved not to be the issue. Just like they haven’t been able to do so far this season, the Nuggets’ offense could never get into a rhythm.

Somehow, Denver got into somewhat of a groove during tonight’s second-half. They outscored Charlotte 29-23 in the third and were within 11 points at the 8:47 mark of the fourth. But the Nuggets’ first-half power outage left them too high a mountain to climb.

Nikola Jokic led Denver with 18 points, 11 rebounds and zero assists, his first game without an assist since Nov. 5 of last season.

Check out more postgame content below –

Nuggets Game Grades: Nikola Jokic shines bright against Hornets