Michael Malone cites "effort" Paul Millsap says Nuggets' slow starts might come down to "execution"

When facing adversity in each of their past two road games, the Denver Nuggets have responded with vengeance. After the Nets outscored Denver 36-29 in the first quarter and led by three points going into halftime on Sunday, the Nuggets blitzed Brooklyn in the third and outscored the Nets 40-21 over the game’s next 12 minutes. Then against the Knicks, Denver trailed by ten after the first quarter, 22 at halftime but responded with a 27-2 run, outscored New York 38-19 in the third, stepped up their defense and forced the Knicks into 12 turnovers in the quarter.

The Nuggets were able to top overcome Brooklyn but dug themselves too big of a hole in their Monday night loss at Madison Square Garden — their third game in four nights and final matchup of a four-game East Coast schlep. So why is Denver getting off to such slow starts?

Nuggets’ head coach Michael Malone believes it’s effort.

“We made a decision to play with effort,” Malone said via AltitudeTV about what changed in the third quarter. “The first half, they were the aggressor. They made us feel them for the first half. We did not impose our will at all and once I took that early timeout in the third quarter, guys came out and played with a lot more energy and effort, physicality and we went on a 27-2 run to get back in the ballgame. Fourth quarter, too many mental breakdowns, lack of discipline. We gave Tim Hardaway Jr three straight threes and he’s the one guy that we’re supposed to be running off the line. So just pour game awareness. I think overall poor effort. Hopefully, our guys can take from this when you do play with energy and effort good things are going to happen for you.”

“You cant dig yourself a hole,” Malone continued. “We came in here, they were playing a third game in four nights just like us so it was inexcusable for us to come out and play the way we did to start the game. Give the Knicks credit. They came out, looked like they had a couple days off and they played with great energy and (Kristaps) Porzingis is a heck of a talent and I thought Kyle O’Quinn kicked our ass.”

On the season, Denver is the 26th-ranked first-quarter defense in the league. They’re allowing opponents to score 112.6 points per 100 possessions in the first 12 minutes of games on 47.7 percent shooting.

Opponents are also shooting 49.2 percent from three in first quarters this year versus Denver — that’s the second-worst mark in the league to Houston. Over the second, third, and fourth quarters, that number dips to 35.8, 30.2, and 36.2 percent respectively.

“Coach always says if we just play for 48 minutes, we’ll win a lot of games and I think that’s our biggest thing right now,” said Jamal Murray who scored 20 points all of which came in the second half. “We just gotta come out whether it’s the first quarter, the third quarter, sometimes the second quarter, we just gotta be ready to play every possession and that’s where teams start to take advantage of us when we’re not playing hard, when not playing together and we start to get down on ourselves. So we just got to take it slow and execute and make sure we’re fighting for 48 minutes.”

The “effort” was the same issue Malone cited often last year when Denver got out to a slow start over the first couple months of the regular season before shifting their offense to Nikola Jokic, piling up a 30-26 record after Dec. 15 and falling one game short of the eighth seed. Last year, the Nuggets fielded the 28th-worst first-quarter defense on 48 percent shooting so Denver has improved marginally on that front.

After the game, Millsap, who shot just 2-13, finished with eight points and fouled out in 34 minutes but did play solid defense throughout, thought “execution” was the reason for Denver’s rough start against the Knicks.

“I don’t know if it was the effort or not,” Millsap said. “They hit some shots, Porzingis got going early, and we didn’t. So I don’t know if it was effort or we just didn’t execute.”

“It’s something we’re figuring out,” Millsap said in response to a question asking how do you start games with the same effort that you showed in the third quarter. “It’s something we’re figuring out for sure.”

At 3-4, Denver isn’t in the worst spot with five of their first seven games on the road and now have a six-game homestand on tap against the Raptors, Heat, Warriors, Nets, Thunder, and Magic to figure out how to get off to better starts.