In what was considered a test for the surging Nuggets, Denver failed miserably as they lose wire-to-wire, and being down as many as 22 points in the game. Lacking aggression and settling for long jumpers, the Nuggets suffered as they made their weakness their primary game plan losing 105-90.
THE RUNDOWN
First Quarter – Starters: Emmanuel Mudiay, Gary Harris, JaKarr Sampson, Darrell Arthur, Nikola Jokic
Stat of the quarter: Nuggets didn’t shoot a single free throw while Clippers go 6-9.
The Nuggets came out of the gates slow, missing their first six shots of the game — many of them on open looks. Mudiay finally put Denver on the scoreboard with a much needed basket on a pull up jumper when Chris Paul got stuck under a Jokic screen.
Unfortunately, the momentum was immense at that point as the Clippers were absolutely rolling, behind the leadership and shooting of Paul. Denver was struggling to stay afloat as Jokic found a diving Arthur for a vicious slam:
Denver was once again saved when the bench unit came in, partly because of their dominance and partly because of Paul being off the court. As mentioned in the preview, the Clippers are one of the most efficient teams when he’s on the floor and one of the very worst when he’s off.
The bench battled their way back and trimmed what was once a 14 point deficit when D.J. Augustin and Jusuf Nurkic checked in down to just five points. This was capped off by Augustin dropping Austin Rivers on his butt and draining a much-needed three at the end of the quarter:
End of first: Clippers up 31-26.
Second Quarter – Starters: D.J. Augustin, Will Barton, Axel Toupane, Joffrey Lauvergne, Jusuf Nurkic
Stat of the quarter: Nuggets shot 0-5 from three and 8-21 from the field.
Denver’s bench continued their momentum going into the second as they start the quarter off with back-to-back baskets bringing the deficit down to just a single point.
Michael Malone has never been afraid to play the hot hand and that was on full display as he rode Augustin all the way until the end of the quarter. D.J. was on absolute fire as he not only handled the ball and made plays all over the court, but also scored an excellent 16 points on 5-8 shooting.
He has been the definition of a bench spark plug this season and one has to wonder how in the world Tim Connelly managed to snag him, as well as two second round picks, just for the dreadful Randy Foye.
The second quarter ended the same way the first one did: with Austin Rivers on his butt. Watch here as Mudiay displays a glimpse of the defensive potential that could make him an absolute nightmare for opposing guards in the future:
End of second: Clippers up 52-48.
Third Quarter – Starters: Mudiay, Harris, Sampson, Arthur, Jokic
Stat of the quarter: Nuggets continued their awful shooting with 0-7 from three and 24 percent from the field. They also only shot a single free throw (which they missed), a lack of aggressiveness due to the fear of Jordan.
The game was completely changed in the third when DeAndre Jordan took over, hosting an Easter block party and inviting the entire Nuggets roster. He was swatting away shot after shot and visibly affected the Nuggets tendency to attack the basket, an element that is absolutely critical for a team that struggles at shooting as much as Denver.
I personally thought that the best counter to this was to put Jokic out on the perimeter and let Jordan decide whether or not to protect the rim, or leave Jokic open for three. Malone, however, decided on going with a small-ball lineup to counter, taking Jokic out for Augustin and leaving Arthur as the lone big man. This lineup didn’t work out very well as they saw a nine point hole widen to 17.
End of third: Clippers up 77-60.
Fourth Quarter – Starters: Augustin, Barton, Toupane, Lauvergne, Jokic
Stat of the quarter: Jusuf Nurkic had 15 points in the fourth on 7-9 shooting.
The fourth quarter was pretty much just putting Nurkic on display as he was the featured player on the Nuggets. Denver went to him again and again to see what he could do and the Bosnian Beast delivered, scoring a new career-high 19 points. The lone bright spot in an otherwise forgettable game.
Final: Clippers win 105-90.
WHERE/WHEN
Staples Center — Los Angeles, CA | March 27th | Regular Season Game 74 (31-43)
PLAYS OF THE GAME
Harris thought it was Halloween instead of Easter as he put on his best Spiderman impersonation on this steal:
A good night for every Clipper besides Austin Rivers as Nurkic tells him to GET THAT WEAK STUFF OUTTA HERE:
Augustin with a great drive and dish leading to a VICIOUS Bosnian slam:
BY THE NUMBERS
NBA.com
Absolutely dreadful shooting from the starters as they go for a combined 11-49 from the field. That alone will lose the game.
Nuggets had their shot blocked an absurd 11 times, visibly affecting their aggressiveness as they shot only 13 free throws in the entire game (and only converting them at a 69.2 percent clip).
WHAT’S NEXT
The Nuggets will fly back home to Denver for a back-to-back and get ready to play a nosediving Mavericks team that have lost eight of their last 10 games. Tip off is tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. MT.
