Emotions reach a boiling point as Nuggets fall to Clippers 111-94

 

NBA players hate to lose, and with the Nuggets and Clippers both meeting tonight with three game losing streaks on their minds, tensions were running high before tip off.

Those tensions boiled over to technical fouls, one on Blake Griffin after he appeared to be jawing with the Nuggets bench; then another technical, this one on Nuggets head coach Michael Malone who was jawing back at Griffin in the waining moments of the game. Those incidents put an exclamation point of what was an exciting game, at least through three quarters, one the Clippers ended up victorious in, 111-94.

Sometimes I worry about Malone’s blood pressure. pic.twitter.com/ts2PSYgIEC

— Nate Timmons (@NateTimmonsBSN) November 25, 2015

“I apologized to our team tonight for getting that tech,” Malone said. “As a head coach as the leader of this team, I cant get caught up in this stuff, so I owed them an apology and I have to set a better example for our team.

“We just have to keep on working. Stay together and keep on working, and find a way to say positive,” Malone continued. “And hopefully a win will come soon.”

The technical foul that was assessed to Malone came in a fourth quarter, which slowed the game to a halt. Malone employed the Hack-A-Shaq on DeAndre Jordan (intentionally fouling a poor free throw shooter) with 5:26 left in the fourth quarter and the Nuggets down 12, they ended up down 13 when they called off the dogs. In fact it turned out to be the fouling that kept Griffin and Malone jawing at each other throughout the game.

“I’m not getting into too many details,” Malone said. “They were frustrated with us fouling DeAndre. Trust me, I’m not a fan of it. It’s a rule you can use and we felt [we] had a better chance of fouling him than allowing them to take a shot, so I think they were frustrated with that. Some words were exchanged, and it’s what happens.”

Jordan ended up with 16 free-throw attempts in that fourth quarter, making seven of them and finished 12-25 from the free-throw line on the night. He actually ended up leading the Clippers in scoring, along with Blake Griffin’s 18 after only registering two points in the first half.

Malone’s heated exchange with Griffin led to another incident that occurred on the Nuggets bench. Malone appeared to get into it with rookie point guard Emmanuel Mudiay during a timeout. When asked about the incident, Malone echoed that there is no issue at all between the two.

“Everything’s fine. I think there’s frustration on our end having lost four games in a row now and just trying to find a way to get a win. And I think obviously wining is a great cure for anybody, like it was for [the Clippers] tonight.”

Michael Malone and Emmanuel Mudiay in a heated exchange on #Nuggets bench. pic.twitter.com/UMjuwfmUWW — Nate Timmons (@NateTimmonsBSN) November 25, 2015

“By no means is there any issue with Emmanuel or anybody else on this team,” Malone continued. “We are together, we’re unified and were going to continue to fight to stay together to try and get this thing turned around.”

When Mudiay was asked about the incident, he took the majority of the blame, a standup, mature answer from a 19-year-old who was thrown into the fire at the start of this season for a team destined to struggle.

“It’s just both of us being competitive,” Mudiay said. “Part of it, it’s probably was my fault. I could have been doing a lot more, so I kind of put the blame on myself. I got nothing against coach, I respect him and he’s a great person.”

Other than tonight’s dragged out fourth quarter, the rest of the game was generally a well-played, back-and-forth contest.

Despite not posting impressive shooting numbers, Danilo Gallinari finished with 20 points on 2-10 shooting and did convert 16-17 from the foul line. Gallo became the first Nuggets player since 1985-86 to score at least 20 points, 16 free throws, and 18 defensive rebounds, a career high in boards for the Italian.

“Some guys, when they’re not making shots, don’t help their team,” Malone said. “At least Gallo was getting to the foul line. At least he was rebounding. As we continue to work on the offense, I’m sure we’ll start shooting at a higher percentage.”

The Nuggets low shooting percentage — which has plagued them all year, and the entirety of last year — continues to be an issue for this team. Denver shot 39.7 percent from the field tonight and 32 percent from three.

“When we struggle to make shots like we did tonight, [with] 16 turnovers, it’s going to be tough to stay with them and we just didn’t have the offensive firepower to stay in the game for four quarters,” Malone said. “But unfortunately, our shooting woes continue.”

Someone who did have a quality offensive game was rookie center Nikola Jokic who finished with 16 points and five rebounds on 7-13 shooting in just over 24 minutes. The rookie is now averaging 13.5 points, 8.5 rebounds and 2.0 assists in his last two games, both of which he’s started.

Los Angeles led Denver 51-45 at the half powered by a big first quarter after the Clippers were able to convert on their first four three point attempts of the game. The game remained tight until a 16-5 Clippers run broke the game open to an 11 point LA lead with 4:55 left in the third. From there, a parade to the free-throw line and the ensuing technical fouls and arguments on the bench followed.

WHERE/WHEN

Pepsi Center, Denver, Colorado /Nov. 11 2015 /Game No. 15

STAR OF THE GAME FOR NUGGETS

Gallinari did most of the heavy lifting with his scoring but in my mind tonight’s most valuable player for the Nuggets was Gary Harris. Harris limited Chris Paul to 15 points on 6-11 shooting and rigorously chased him around screens throughout the night. Harris also chipped in on the offensive end scoring 14 points on 5-11 shooting and draining 3-6 from 3-point land.

PLAY(S) OF THE GAME

Mike Miller was on a one-on-zero fast break, suddenly he saw Jamal Crawford out of the corner of his eye, he decided to pull up from three instead.

#Nuggets Mike Miller pulls up on fast break, thanks to Jamal Crawford sprinting back, and buries a three. pic.twitter.com/Oo5nEhZmvX

— Timmons (@NateTimmonsCSG) November 25, 2015

Emmanuel Mudiay gets into the lane and set up Jokic with the nice behind-the-back look.

WOW! Emmanuel Mudiay goes behind the back to Nikola Jokic in traffic for the easy look. @Nuggets pic.twitter.com/iyM4SIFB2S

— Timmons (@NateTimmonsCSG) November 25, 2015

Jokic with the pretty turnaround over Jordan.

Nikola Jokic with the kick back jumper here. Pretty shot. #Nuggets pic.twitter.com/UeaB5bevFM

— Timmons (@NateTimmonsCSG) November 25, 2015

The Clippers had some pretty incredible highlight plays this game. Including this Griffin three with the shot clock expiring and a Jamal Crawford half court shot.

https://twitter.com/FOXSportsLive/status/669360048200552448

Ladies and gentleman, Jamal Crawford. 👏👏👏 https://t.co/YQpsUhH2Yt

— LA Clippers (@LAClippers) November 25, 2015

TURNING POINT OF THE GAME

After a tightly contested first half that had the Clippers leading by just six, both teams turned the game over to their benches for a large chunk of the third quarter. What followed was bland and stale basketball and some interesting lineup choices by Malone.

Mudiay played just 10 minutes in the second half, and didn’t re-enter the fourth quarter until there was 5:26 left in the game. By then, Denver was desperately fouling Jordan and the game seemed to have already slipped away. The emotion had totally left the building and you could tell from Denver’s body language this one was over. Mudiay finished with 23:34 of playing time, while backup Jameer Nelson played 24:26. I asked Malone about that discrepancy postgame.

“It was just a feel, flow of the game, nothing else to it,” Malone said.

The 3:32 Mudiay did play in the fourth quarter, wasn’t nearly enough time for him to make an impact of any sort.

BY THE NUMBERS

The Nuggets had only 16 assists tonight. It was only their fourth game of the season with 16-or-fewer  assists. They are 0-4 in those games.

Denver also recorded zero blocks tonight and the Nuggets are 2-16 in games when they register zero blocks.

QUOTE OF THE GAME

Mudiay on his argument on the bench with Malone:

“It’s just both of us being competitive. Part of it, it’s probably was my fault. I could have been doing a lot more, so I kind of put the blame on myself. I got nothing against coach, I respect him and he’s a great person.”

“Me and [coach are] both competitive, we want to win, hate losing. We’re on a four game losing streak, so it’s just us trying to win. But at the same time, it’s on to the next game, it’s been like that my whole life. He’s just trying to challenge me [and] I accepted [it], he’s been nothing but good to me so I just got to go out and play hard for him.”

 

WHAT’S NEXT

The Nuggets grueling end of November slate doesn’t lighten up as the San Antonio Spurs visit Pepsi Center Friday night. Denver then starts a five-game road trip in Dallas on Saturday, before heading to Milwaukee, Chicago, Toronto and finally Philadelphia.