"I don't want to become a team that tries to outscore opponents,": Malone, Nuggets turn their focus to defense

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DENVER — Winners of three of their last four while averaging a league-leading 119.5 points per game during that span, the Denver Nuggets have been firing on all cylinders offensively as of late.

Nikola Jokic is directing the offense from the center position, Emmanuel Mudiay is transforming into a more efficient and unselfish playmaker, Gary Harris is healthy and looks poised to take another step offensively, and Wilson Chandler, Will Barton, and Danilo Gallinari are finding consistency game in and game out on the wing.

Now, coach Michael Malone and his staff are turning their focus towards the defensive end of the floor.

“The one fear I have, and I talk to our staff about this, the offensive numbers are great but the defensive numbers are awful,” Malone said at practice Thursday. “I don’t want to become a team that tries to outscore opponents. That’s a losing proposition. That’s been proven time and time again in every sport. So we have to find a way to get defense back and not try and make it a shootout at the O.K. Corral.”

Currently, Denver ranks 27th in the league in defensive efficiency, giving up 108.6 points per 100 possessions the season and one reason for the Nuggets’ defensive ineptitude is how fast they’ve been playing.

Playing fast equals more possessions per game, and more possession per game equals more opportunities for your opponent to score. Denver is averaging 100.6 possessions per game, the sixth-most in the league

“When you’re playing at a fast pace, you’re going to be giving up more points because you’re using more possessions as well,” Malone said. “For me, I’m looking at what is our defensive field goal percentage, what is our two-points defense. Because yes, you’re playing fast but you just don’t want to let teams score, so we have to find a way to be a lot healthier with the balance between playing with pace and playing fast and not just trying to get up and down, they score two, we score two.”

On the season, Denver is allowing opponents to shoot 46.8 percent from the field, a staggering 62.6 percent in the restricted area, 50.9 percent on two-pointers, and 36.7 percent from three, which are all bottom-five marks in the league except for three-point percentage which ranks 24th.

“Even in those games, we saw periods where we were just outscoring our opponent and that has to change,” Malone said referring to the Nuggets’ lack of defense over their last four games. “Because again, I don’t think we can sustain winning when that’s the case.”

Footnotes

Dwight Howard did not travel with the team to Denver due to a back injury and has been ruled out of Friday’s game against the Nuggets, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Chris Vivlamore. It will be the third consecutive game Howard has missed.