Michael Malone reflective, portends in Nuggets home finale loss to Jazz

DENVER — Gordon Hayward finished with a smooth 22 points and nine boards, Rudy Gobert controlled the paint from the opening tip and blocked six shots to go along with 14 rebounds and 16 points, and Trey Lyles, who started in place of Derrick Favors had 22 points and six rebounds, as the Jazz defeated the Nuggets 100-84.

From the jump, it was Lyles, the rookie, stretch four from Kentucky, who replaced Favors that was a late scratch with right knee soreness that set the tone. He was the true kryptonite to the Nikola Jokic, Jusuf Nurkic frontcourt combination, which coach Michael Malone rolled out for a second consecutive game.

“Trey Lyles looked like an All-Star tonight and we had a hard time guarding him,” Malone said. “Gordon Hayward is a great player. He’s gonna have good nights. He carries that team. I think Trey Lyles had a great night, give him a ton of credit and we did a poor job of defending him and defending the 3-point line for that matter.”

Lyles had no issue taking the larger and less mobile Jokic off the dribble on a number of occasions in the first quarter, and the Nuggets had difficulty keeping track of him off ball throughout the entirety of the game. Lyles had seven points in the opening frame and continued to be the pest Denver couldn’t contain.

“I think tonight showed that that big lineup is probably not something we can live with for extensive minutes,” Malone said.

After trailing by just one at halftime, a disastrous third quarter did Denver in. The Jazz outscored the Nuggets 34-15 in the third, highlighted by a 24-0 third quarter run, 10 points from Hayward and eight more from Shelvin Mack. Denver managed to shoot just 6-20, or 30 percent from the field in the period.

In the ten minutes Trevor Booker was on the floor that quarter he was a +23, while in 9:29 of playing time during the third, Gobert was a +20.

For the Nuggets, Emmanuel Mudiay scored 19 points on 8-16 shooting, Jokic had an efficient 19 and 11 on just nine shots, and Gary Harris, solid and stable as always, finished in double figures with 13.

After scoring a season high 21 points to go along with nine rebounds versus the Spurs two nights ago, Jusuf Nurkic who started alongside Jokic, wasn’t nearly as effective tonight. A large part of that having to do with Gobert’s length on the interior.

Nurkic, who finished with six points on 2-11 shooting, didn’t get his first bucket to do drop until there was less than seven minutes left in the fourth quarter.

“There have been so many positive things this year, there have also been plenty of moments when it is a sobering gut check and we have a ways to go,” Malone said postgame. “And I’m okay [with] that, I signed up for that. I knew where we were and where were trying to go and think we’re well on our way. But when you lose to Utah four times and aside from a stretch tonight, aside from a stretch in each of the games we outplayed them for most of the game. But there’s aways that one part of the game that we’re just not able to overcome, and tonight you saw that at the end of the third quarter.”

WHERE/WHEN

Pepsi Center / April 10, 2016 3:00 pm MT / Game Number 81

STAR OF THE GAME 

For the Nuggets, Jokic was Denver’s most effective player. He finished with 19 points and 11 rebounds on a clean 7-9 shooting. In a season that saw a lot of development from a player personnel standpoint, Jokic’ rise and impact stands alone at the top.

PLAYS OF THE GAME

Center on center action:

Mudiay finds Arthur in transition:

Barton climbs the ladder to block Gobert:

BY THE NUMBERS

QUOTE OF THE GAME

Malone on if this team is taking the right steps to get back to the playoffs like the Jazz currently are:

“How close are we to getting that turned around? It depends on what happens this summer. The team that we finished out tonight with, last home game, will not be the team that opens up the season. That’s the reality of the NBA right? Change is inevitable. We have a draft. We have free agency. There are trades to be made.”

WHAT’S NEXT

Denver travels to Portland for their final regular season game on Wednesday. After finishing 30-52 last season, the Nuggets could improve their win total by three games.