"His length was effective against KD”: Hernangomez emerges on defense in Nuggets' loss

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The one bright spot or silver lining in the Nuggets’ 125-101 loss to the Golden State Warriors Thursday night was the play of Denver’s rookies.

With the game out of hand in the second half, Jamal Murray, Malik Beasley, and Juancho Hernangomez played 29, 15, and 30 minutes respectively. Murray totaled a season-high 14 points and looks like he’s getting more comfortable with the speed of the game every minute he’s on the floor. Beasley notched 12 points and played more minutes (15) than he had combined for in the two previous games he’s appeared in this year.

However, Denver’s most notable rookie performance of the night came by the way of Hernangomez, who played 30 minutes, scored 11 points, grabbed nine rebounds, and held Kevin Durant to just 18 points on 8-16 shooting.

“I loved how our young guys played at in the fourth quarter. The one positive I’m taking out of this was, Jamal Murray, Malik Beasley, Juancho,” coach Michael Malone said. “I thought [Hernangomez’s] defense was really good on Kevin Durant.”

With Wilson Chandler still sidelined because of a sore hamstring and Will Barton out with a sprained ankle, Hernangomez was Denver’s backup small forward behind Danilo Gallinari and found himself matched up on Durant often, as Golden State plays Durant with their second unit for large chunks of time.

The results were better than expected.

Hernangomez limited Durant to 18 points, just enough to snap his streak of 72 games scoring 20 points or more, the longest such streak in 50 years and fourth-longest of all-time.

Now Durant only played only played 29 minutes and would have likely reached the 20-point threshold had the score been closer and Golden State had played their starters until the final buzzer. But Durant did play until the 5:51 mark in the fourth quarter and was affected by Hernangomez throughout much of the night.

“A, he had nine rebounds, so I tip my hat to him for getting nine boards,” Malone said of Hernangomez. “Juancho is a competitor, he’s a hard worker and he made Kevin Durant feel him. Kevin Durant is one of the top-five players in the world, but I thought Juancho had great discipline to stay down on his shot fakes and he’s got really good length, and I thought his length was effective against KD.”

One of the biggest knocks on Hernangomez coming into the season was that he wouldn’t be able to defend his position. At 6-foot-9, Hernangomez has the length and athleticism to defend perimeter players but struggled this preseason and at the onset of the regular season defending opposing fours.

The Nuggets countered that weakness by playing Hernangomez at the three over the past few games where his pencil-thin frame matches up better against the opposition. Yet against Durant, his body compares favorably despite giving up a couple inches.

“He’s one of the best players in the world,” Hernangomez said of Durant. “I feel really proud. I’m really sorry because in 23 games straight he made more than 20 points, I’m sorry for him. But they win, so he’s happy, but we lose, so we’re sad.”

Durant still hit 8-16 from the field, a bit lower than the 57.3 percent he’s shooting this year, but Hernangomez limited him to 1-5 shooting on isolation possessions where Durant posted up the rookie on the block or walked him out to the wing.

“He’s not afraid, he’s a tough kid,” Malone said of Hernangomez. “He’s been playing pro ball over in Europe for a little bit and I thought he embraced the challenge that was given to him tonight, and I couldn’t have been prouder of him.”

With Chandler questionable for Saturday night against Detroit and Darrell Arthur and Barton still sidelined, Hernangomez should be able to build on his performance against Durant and get significant minutes once again. Denver needs his versatility to defend the Pistons’ three’s and four’s, including Tobias Harris, Marcus Morris, Stanley Johnson, and Jon Leuer, the latter of which scored a season-high 15 points in Detroit’s 103-86 win over the Nuggets back on November 5.