Grades: Jamal Murray, Nikola Jokić, and Facundo Campazzo lead Nuggets past Wolves

There’s no better way to get right than to get a Minnesota game for the Denver Nuggets. Denver rebounded with a 124-109 win in Target Center Sunday evening, their ninth straight victory over the Timberwolves since that fateful ‘Game 82’ on April 11, 2018. Head coach Michael Malone shrunk his rotation down to nine guys, relying heavily on Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokić. The stagger worked, and the bench found life when on the floor with Denver’s stars. Murray was transcendent, Jokić closed the door, and Facundo Campazzo finally broke through in arguably the first feel-good moment of the season.

Let’s go to the grades:

Jamal Murray – A+

Murray was excellent from start to finish in Minnesota. To highlight any one stretch runs the risk of downplaying the rest of his night, but his minutes alongside the bench saved the game for Denver. It was a slow start for his dynamic partner, Jokić, and the bench struggled before Murray led them to water. The Nuggets aren’t in that game unless he’s locked in for four quarters.

Murray was shot ready from deep, in rhythm, and deep in his high-degree of difficulty bag — knocking down various highlight shots. He was hot, and yet, he rarely forced the issue or settled. Murray finished 7/9 from the free-throw line after putting his head down and willing himself to the stripe on more than one occasion. All told, he finished with 36 points 13/20 from the field.

Nikola Jokić – A

It’s always best to keep those tweets about an off-night from the big fella in your drafts. Just when I was ready to declare this a subpar performance from the early MVP candidate, Jokić awoke in the fourth quarter and slammed the door shut. He finished with 7 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists in 11-plus minutes of the fourth. He posted a +/- of +24 in those minutes as well. Elite close job from the game’s best actual center, who recorded another triple-double, by the way. Light work.

Paul Millsap – B

Millsap was 4/7 from beyond the arc Sunday night. He was also 4/7 from the field. He’s been vocal about trying to play even more within his role this season. So far, that role appears to be a three-point specialist—a role he’s filling nicely. Millsap’s a couple of steps slower on the defensive end than the bar he set during his glorious peak on that end, but he’s a valuable floor-spacer for Denver these days.

Will Barton – C-

Barton added 6 rebounds and 6 assists in 21:52 of playing time as he started in place of the unavailable Michael Porter Jr. again. Those were his key contributions, along with a couple of nice blocks. The rest of his night was brutal. He finished 3/11 from the floor and only scored 8 points. Before the game, Ryan Blackburn of DenverStiffs.com tweeted out some information that I would point to first if asked to describe Barton’s struggles this season:

Will Barton is shooting 18.8 FG% on drives to the rim so far this season.

Among all players with at least as many as his 7.8 drives per game, that is by far the lowest percentage in the NBA. pic.twitter.com/9jRRaN0C95

— Ryan Blackburn (@NBABlackburn) January 3, 2021

He’s finding no success at the rim, and it’s the most prominent indicator, in my opinion anyway, that he’s not yet 100% healthy, or back in game shape at the very least.

Gary Harris – D

There was a brief stretch this season, call it 4-5 quarters long when Harris looked to be playing Jokić-ball again. He was cutting hard off-ball, driving decisively, and shooting confidently from the corner. The magic dried up, predictably, and Harris is free-falling once again. He was 1/8 from the floor Sunday evening and missed all four of his threes. He’s now 3/24 from three on the season–good for 12%. “Good” is probably not an optimal choice of words there.

Facundo Campazzo – A-

Campazzo’s first stint wasn’t too encouraging. Like clockwork, Minny sought him out and punished him on consecutive possessions, but then something clicked for him. Campazzo recorded a couple of big steals in a pivotal third-quarter run and generated another turn by eliciting a truly horrendous charge call. I’ve got a feeling he’s going to do that a lot.
He also found a groove offensively alongside Murray and Jokić. The latter two’s gravity created wide-open looks in the corner for Campazzo, who knocked down 5 of his 7 three-point attempts and finished with 15 points. The +/- column is noisy, but Campazzo was +26 in a little more than 21 minutes, for whatever it’s worth.

In the end, it’s Facu who provides Denver with the first real injection of good vibes this season. Somewhere an Argentine is reading this, nodding their head, thoroughly unsurprised.

Monte Morris – B-

Mr. Nugget got the job done in 28-plus minutes against the Wolves. He finished with 11 points, 6 assists, 3 rebounds, and 0 turnovers. A humble suggestion: when someone records 4 or more assists without turning it over, we should call it “The Monte.”

I’m here all season.

JaMychal Green – B+

It looks like everyone is a little bit correct so far in their assumptions about Green’s impact upon returning. Has he fixed all of the second unit woes? No. Has he helped a lot? Yes. Curiously, Malone cut the rotation down to nine players and stuck with the 3-4 guard combination for significant chunks of the game. Supposing you haven’t done the math in your head, that leaves Hartenstein as the odd man out. I digress—Green’s actual performance was strong. He finished with 14 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals on 5/10 from the floor.

Eight of his 10 attempts came from deep, and he knocked down three of them. He did commit four avoidable turnovers and wasn’t spotless defensively, but he was a positive player in Denver’s second win of the season.

PJ Dozier – C+

Dozier isn’t finding ways to help offensively as the third and sometimes fourth guard on the floor. He is, however, among the very best defenders on this team. I maintain the lion’s share of his ineffectiveness can be chalked up to weird utilization to this point in the season. That said, one should probably cap their expectations for him on the offensive end. It doesn’t seem to come naturally to him at this level yet.