Inside the Nuggets’ fourth quarter defensive surge against the Mavericks

A defining trait of the Nuggets’ 2018-19 campaign was Denver’s fourth-quarter defense. The Nuggets were one of the better defensive teams in the league last season and fielded the NBA’s 10th-best defense overall, but their ability to clamp down over the final 12 minutes of games helped Denver grind out wins when its offense wasn’t operating at peak performance.

Statistically, the Nuggets’ defense has been better this season than last (106.9 Defensive Rating compared to 108.1), but its been far worse in fourth quarters. The Nuggets have posted a 108.9 Defensive Rating (points allowed per 100 possessions) in fourth quarters this season, good for the 18th-best mark in the league, compared to last season’s 102 DRtg which was tops in the NBA by a considerable margin.

Wednesday’s 107-106 win over the Mavericks was a throwback to last season’s 54-win campaign for a number of reasons. First off, Denver found a way to get a quality road win over a difficult opponent without two starters — Paul Millsap (left knee contusion) and Will Barton (personal reasons) — which they did countless times over the first-half of last year when Millsap, Barton, and Gary Harris all missed time. The Nuggets also got a vintage 2018-19 performance from Nikola Jokic, the type of dominant offensive outing that Denver’s center has been piecing together often over the last two months.

The Nuggets also battened down the hatches in the fourth quarter Wednesday, holding the Mavericks to 17 points on 6 of 19 shooting while scoring just 21 points themselves. Luka Doncic, who tallied 27 points in 30 minutes over the game’s first three quarters, went scoreless in the fourth and only attempted three field goals.

These three sequences stood out from the final 12 minutes of action.

Malik Beasley flies around

His name has been tossed around in trade rumors for the better part of this season but Beasley hasn’t let the chatter affect his play on the court. Beasley flew up and down the floor Wednesday, jumping from rotation to rotation on the defensive end and getting out in transition on offense once Denver registered a stop.

In the fourth quarter Beasley was great defensively. After a series of defensive rotations on this Mavs possession, Beasley closed out quickly on Justin Jackson in the corner, bodied the taller forward in the post, and then blocked his shot at the rim. It led to Beasley pushing the ball up the floor and finding Mason Plumlee on a lob at the basket.

Jerami Grant’s length, rim protection and versatility

Grant hasn’t been the fit so far in Denver that the Nuggets envisioned he would be when they traded a first-round pick for the forward this summer. Michael Malone even shouldered the blame for Grant’s inconsistency this season after the win.

“I’m going to be honest. I think I’ve done a poor job helping Jerami Grant,” Malone said. “I think there there are times especially lately, hes been kind of in a — not a funk that’s the wrong word — but trying to find himself and I’ve done a poor job of helping him find himself and helping the other guys get him going. That’s on me. I’ll take the hit.

“But tonight what I loved, that’s the Jerami Grant that we traded for. That’s the Jerami Grant that when we were in Las Vegas and that trade happened we were so excited. Three blocked shots, length, athleticism, driving the basketball, five rebounds. When Jerami plays with that kind of energy and attack mindset, he becomes a difference-maker and it’s my job to make sure he’s doing that more often.”

Grant stepped into the Nuggets’ starting lineup for Millsap against Dallas and had one of his better games of the season. He scored 15 points but also recorded three blocks, two of which came against Doncic on the same possession in the first half. Grant’s last rejection was maybe his most crucial.

That’s the type of rim protection and defensive length Denver thought it was getting this summer and at times, Grant has flashed those intangibles like when he blocked Devin Booker’s potential game-winning 3-pointer earlier this season. Grant has a combination of length and athleticism that no one on else on the Nuggets’ roster.

This was another contest Grant had on a Doncic drive late in the fourth.

He’s displayed the ability to switch onto smaller defenders — like he did against Doncic Wednesday — this season. But if Grant can be this type of rim protector consistently he has a great shot of slotting in next to Nikola Jokic in the Nuggets’ frontcourt long-term.

A team effort on Dallas’ last possession

Many factors led to the Nuggets turning in arguably their best defensive possession of the night in the game’s most crucial moment. First, Michael Malone executed two clutch substitutions, swapping Torrey Craig for Jamal Murray and Mason Plumlee for Jokic ahead of Dallas’ final possession. Craig, at 6-foot-6, and Plumlee, who’s much more fleet of foot than Jokic out on the perimeter, gave Denver a more switch-friendly lineup for a sequence where the Nuggets knew the Mavericks would try and get Doncic swapped onto a favorable matchup.

Malone said after the game that he conferred with lead assistant coach and de-facto defensive coordinator Wes Unseld Jr. during the preceding timeout about how they wanted to guard Doncic on the game’s last possession. Malone left the decision up to Unseld who advised to trap Doncic and get the ball out of his hands. That’s exactly how the Nuggets proceeded and Grant and Craig converged on Doncic as he came off a Tim Hardaway Jr. screen.

Doncic skipped the ball to the corner where Beasley executed another crisp closeout. Dorian Finney-Smith slipped by Beasley but Plumlee was already in an all-out sprint to the corner and was able to force an errant pass out to half-court which ended the game.

Give Gary Harris and Craig credit for the Nuggets’ fourth-quarter defensive effort too. The two wings were Denver’s primary defender on Doncic, and while he went off for 27 points over the first three quarters both did a good job chasing the Mavs’ point guard over screens and funneling him towards Grant and Plumlee, the Nuggets’ top rim protectors when they could.