Denver Nuggets Emmanuel Mudiay, Gary Harris, Nikola Jokic combine for 27 third quarter points to down Pistons

The Denver Nuggets got outscored in the first half 54-45 and lost both the first (32-26) and second (22-19) quarters. Denver allowed Detroit to shoot 53.5 percent in the first half and had another hole to climb out of heading into the second half.

“That’s the second or third game in a row where we’ve allowed our opponent to open the game up and do what they want,” said Michael Malone post-game. “We talked at halftime, we have to start taking a lot more pride in our defense. Third quarter we outscore them 39-20. That is a product of? One: our defense — running off our defense. Even in the half court, I thought we played with much greater pace. First half we held it, very slow and I thought they controlled the tempo. To come out in the third quarter and play as well as we did, was great to see.”

The Nuggets got into a bit of trouble in the fourth quarter with their mash-second-unit of Randy Foye, Sean Kilpatrick, Will Barton, Mike Miller and Joffrey Lauvergne. That group lost the 10-point lead the starters built heading into the final quarter in under four minutes.

Malone went back to his starters, eventually, and the group of Emmanuel Mudiay, Gary Harris, Danilo Gallinari, Darrell Arthur and Nikola Jokic were on the floor to close the game in dramatic fashion for the Nuggets. Denver won another close one: 104-101.

WHERE/WHEN

Pepsi Center – Denver, CO / Jan. 23rd / Game Number 44

STARS OF THE GAME

Mudiay: He controlled the game in the third quarter on and turned in one of his finest performances of the season. He finished 6-15 from the floor (1-4 from deep, 5-6 from the foul line) for 18 points, 4 assists and 4 rebounds. He continued to attack the rim late in the game, even though he wasn’t getting foul calls (rightfully or not), and that aggression served the team well tonight.

Harris: Finished the game 5-10 from the floor (1-3 for deep, 2-2 on free throws) for 13 points, but his 5 steals were game-changing. Harris was all over the floor defensively and was a huge part of this win.

Jokic: Finished the game 7-11 from the floor (1-1 from deep, 2-2 on free throws) for 17 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 blocks.

In the third quarter those three combined to shoot 12-15 from the floor for 27 of Denver’s 39 points. To start the game, that trio was 2-9 for just 8 points. What was the difference?

“I knew they were going to come out there and be real tough on [Gallinari to start the third quarter],” said Mudiay, “So, I feel like me being aggressive was going to open up a lot of stuff for me, Nikola was being aggressive too and Gary came along and we all started playing better. We got stops and we started running.”

PLAYS OF THE GAME

The Nuggets have struggled on fast break this season, but on this play Darrell Arthur and Gary Harris run the give-and-go to perfection and Harris finds Arthur for the pretty left-handed finish on the alley-oop.

With the Pistons up 48-37, Andre Drummond gets the ball in the post and should have been able to easily move Nikola Jokic out of the way. However, Jokic stands his ground and gets the block on Drummond. Stops like this are what can make the difference later in a tight game.

Harris is just a pest on defense and here he gets a steal on Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and finishes with the monster jam on the other end.

Gallinari gathers the ball with just :05 seconds left on the shot clock with the Nuggets down 101-100. Moving to his left he gets up the difficult shot over Marcus Morris to give the Nuggets a one point lead that proved to be the game-winner.

TURNING POINT OF THE GAME

Coming out of the locker room, the Nuggets were down 54-45, but used a 39-20 third quarter to propel themselves into a 84-74 lead heading into the fourth quarter. Unfortunately, those 27 points scored by Mudiay, Harris and Jokic were almost for naught as the Pistons took a brief lead in the fourth, but Denver closed the final six minutes on a 13-7 run to win the game.

BY THE NUMBERS

Malone stuck with a second quarter lineup of Randy Foye, Sean Kilpatrick, Will Barton, Mike Miller and Joffrey Lauvergne to open the second quarter. It was an odd lineup that offers a ton of space, but not much in the rebounding or defense departments — both of which Malone often identifies as key.

That unit was out there from the start of the second quarter to the  7:43 mark. The five didn’t make a dent in the Pistons six-point lead and after a timeout Nikola Jokic came in for Lauvergne and it was 41-35 Detroit.

QUOTE OF THE GAME

“I think the good thing about this team is we never give up.” said Nikola Jokic.

LASTING IMPRESSION

The Nuggets move to 17-27 with the win, and remain pesky in the Western Conference. As Malone stated after the Grizzlies loss, this team may not be doing the little things that playoff teams do — at least not all the time — but this team has something. While the playoffs may be out of reach or unrealistic, the team is fighting and impressing.

Tonight the Nuggets were without Jameer Nelson and Kenneth Faried — and Malone didn’t play Jusuf Nurkic. Nelson and Nurkic have been vital to the second unit, especially with having the mash-unit they played tonight. And not having Faried takes away a certain energy level that he brings every time he’s in the game. Heck of a win for this team.

WHAT’S NEXT

The Nuggets finish up their season-long eight game home stand on Monday, Jan. 25th against the Atlanta Hawks.