DNVR Player Grades: welcome to the darkest timeline

Before Game 3 between the Denver Nuggets and Utah Jazz tipped off Friday, a reporter asked Michael Malone about tactical adjustments after the loss in Game 2. He wasn’t too interested in the question. “Before we make an adjustment, let’s do what the hell we’re supposed to do correctly,” Malone told the media.

Of course, the Nuggets did adjust their defensive gameplan from Games 1 to 2. And at the start of Game 3, they threw a different look at Utah again, switching the vast majority of on-ball screens. That didn’t work either. By the end of the 124-87 loss, what Malone was trying to articulate was crystal clear — it doesn’t matter what this team does on the defensive end right now. With this lack of effort and this little life on the other end of the court, any adjustments are futile.

Utah saw the return of starting point guard Mike Conley Jr. Friday, and if Nuggets fans hoped it might work in their favor to take the ball out of Mitchell’s hands, they were gravely mistaken. Conley played impeccable basketball in his first game back since the birth of his son. In that sense, he fits right back into place. Everyone on Utah is rolling right now.

Only Jamal Murray and Jerami Grant came out with any real fight in them, but neither had any real juice. Murray failed to put pressure on the defense again. Grant finally corralled some rebounds but shot 28% from the field. I’m racking my brain and scanning the box score for a bright spot here, but I have none. Murray and Grant struggled, though at least they tried, which is more than we can say for the franchise cornerstone.

Nikola Jokić played this game in seeming contempt and protest. Of what exactly, I do not know, but he brought the effort and temperament we might expect in an early November game. There is no excuse for the ease with which he rolled over in a playoff environment. His final line is underwhelming, but it doesn’t correctly reflect how poor his body language was and how he withdrew himself from the contest. He had little to offer on defense. He stood and watched as Rudy Gobert plucked rebounds from his air space. He turned it over — can we say on purpose? — after Michael Porter Jr. misread the floor.

When I look back at the decisive sequence (end of 1st, start of 2nd), couple plays stood out. This is an offensive rebound Gobert never should've gotten. That's on Jokic, leads to an easy bucket. pic.twitter.com/2HsV2OaHIT

— Mike Singer (@msinger) August 22, 2020

Of course, Jokić is not single-handedly responsible for the loss, but he is the best player on the team, and he can’t quit on his guys in a playoff game. Any star should be held to this standard.

The Nuggets trail by just one game in the series, and still possess superior talent, even if we have yet to see it manifest. But this loss cut deep, and not because of the deficit. The Nuggets are an 8-second violation away from dropping the first three games to an underdog. This isn’t their playoff debuts anymore. They aren’t cute overachievers anymore. They have set their sights on and spoke about rings. Right now, they don’t look like they belong in the NBA.

It’s not just that they lost; it’s that they quit. The best player had no interest in clawing back. The Head Coach did not appear to have any answers and did seem to drop his head into a set of prayer hands on the bench. Their toughest player is playing nowhere near the level this series and his impending contract demands. The Nuggets lack killer instinct, but they’ve shown us plenty of fight. We expected them to punch back Friday night. Instead, they walked out of the ring.

When Game 1 concluded, I called this moment my favorite in the history of the Jokić-era Nuggets.

#Nuggets #MileHighBasketball pic.twitter.com/A4yTqkuXQl

— Joel Rush (@JoelRushNBA) August 17, 2020

We all watched this, feeling the young Nuggets were ready to turn a corner — this dynamic duo eager to storm the castle. But Game 3 produced a different image. One that will also stick with me for all the wrong reasons should they fail to turn this around. With the fourth-quarter underway and the game already well out of reach, the broadcast cut to three shots of Denver’s three stars — the trio frozen in contemplation, fixed like sepulchral monuments to a dying dream.

Nuggets bench morale says it all… pic.twitter.com/sIcGP6FSmq

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) August 21, 2020

Who do you blame? Malone? Jokić? Murray? There’s no wrong answer, and there’s plenty to go around. The series isn’t over, and history should have taught us by now the dangers of reacting too strongly at the moment. But what I, and what I suspect many fans responded to Friday wasn’t the horrid result. It’s a reaction to a disheartening process. They are not any single adjustment away. They are not just a few missed shots away. They have mountains to climb, and they’re running out of time to prove they are who we say they are.

I thought we might be asking a couple of critical questions throughout and following this playoff run. But I was pretty sure we’d be asking different questions: are the Nuggets good enough already? What’s the next step to turn the corner?

Instead, we’re left wondering: do the Nuggets even care?

There’s only one grade today. This team is failing — they’re failing themselves, they’re failing each other, and they’re failing this city. It’s time to put up or shut up.