Whether its been envigorating locker room speeches from coach Michael Malone, players finding their second wind after the halftime break and the effects from training at altitude kicking in, or a little of both, the Denver Nuggets usually come out on top in third quarters. In fact, heading into tonight’s matchup against the Memphis Grizzlies, Denver was the third-best third-quarter team in the league this season.
But after the Nuggets led the Grizzlies 61-45 at the break, Memphis outscored Denver 29-15 in the third. Marc Gasol and Co. locked up a Nuggets’ offense that had one of its better halves of the season on the offensive end of the floor and limited them to just 5-20 (25 percent shooting).
Denver only scored two points in the last 4:23 of the third quarter.
The Nuggets surged with three buckets in a row from Nikola Jokic to open the fourth as the 22-year-old turned in one of his better five-minute stretches of the season, and maybe his career, to gradually push the Nuggets’ lead back to double-digits. That was enough for Denver to get an important 104-92 over a Grizzlies squad that’s now lost seven in a row.
Jokic scored 14 points and registered seven rebounds in the period and finished with 28 points, 13 rebounds, and eight assists. He was spectacular in the quarter and for the full 35 minutes he played tonight on both ends of the floor. The rest of Denver’s players fed off his energy and leadership.
Elsewhere, Denver’s starting backcourt of Jamal Murray and Gary Harris each finished with 15 points.
Coming off a 30-point defeat in Houston on Wednesday, Malone inserted Kenneth Faried into Denver’s starting lineup after matching up with a smaller Rockets team with Will Barton. The decision paid off as Denver got out to a 27-18 advantage after the first quarter and led by 16 at the break.
Faried and Jokic teamed up to lead Denver to one of their better offensive halves of the year as the Nuggets shot 66 percent in the half, hit six of their 13 attempts from distance, but did finish with 13 turnovers. Denver also left a lot of points on the board at the free-throw line and shot just 5-13 in the half from the stripe.
Malone wants to keep a consistent rotation going forward without the services of Paul Millsap for the immediate future. Expect Faried to stick with the starters.
Faried finished with 14 points and nine rebounds.
The Nuggets got their 11th win of the year, their second in three tries without Millsap and will look to get revenge on the Jazz in Utah on Tuesday — a location where they fell on opening night a little more than a month ago.
0 Comments (1 conversation)
I liked the shot distribution leaning heavily towards Jokic, Harris, and Murray. I think with how consistently good Jokic and Harris’ TS% has been, it’d be nice to see those two account for at least the 33 shots they did tonight, if not 40 FG attempts per game..
The second unit coming in needs to stop spelling disaster. All those guys, but especially Plumlee and Mudiay, need to work harder and focus on their strengths, in my opinion. I liked the two man game between Plumlee and Barton, unfortunately I didn’t see anywhere near enough movement. It seems like when Plumlee comes into the game, the offense stagnates. I also don’t like how often Plumlee in particular fails to challenge shots. Unlike Plumlee, seeing Trey Lyles challenging pretty much everything was refreshing to see. I’d really like to know what possessed the Nuggets to give Plumlee anything more than a qualifying offer this offseason. Dude has played a handful of good games since last February. He’s starting to remind me a lot of JJ Hickson. If I’m Malone, I’d be looking at guys like Lyles, Juancho, and Lydon to push Plumlee out of the rotation and maybe bring a little life to the dead Denver second unit right now. This was a lucky win in my book, Nuggets got a lot of calls and caught a break with Conley being out. The lead dropping to 2 never should’ve happened, and honestly, Memphis sucks right now, it’s no coincidence they’ve lost 7 in a row.