Nuggets can't complete comeback, begin road trip with loss to Hawks

The Atlanta Hawks built up a seemingly insurmountable lead in the first half, quieting a Nuggets’ offense that was hitting on all cylinder’s over their last handful of games. At least until the fourth quarter.

Sound familiar?

Unfortunately for the Nuggets, Wilson Chandler, Jamal Murray and Juancho Hernangomez couldn’t quite match the late-game heroics of Tom Brady, James White and Julian Edelman from last weekend, as the Atlanta Hawks held off a furious rally by the Nuggets, coming away with a 117-106 victory and hand Denver a tough loss to start their three-game, east coast road trip.

Denver overcame one of their worst defensive performances of the season (and that’s saying something). After allowing the Hawks their highest scoring quarter (39) and half (72) to start the game, the hustle of Chandler and rookies Murray and Hernangomez cut the lead down to four late in the fourth quarter. Gary Harris missed a wide open 3-pointer and Paul Millsap followed by completing a tough 3-point play for a six-point swing and 112-105 Hawks lead that proved to be too much to overcome.

Chandler led the Nuggets with 24 points and 8 rebounds on 9-17 (4-7 from deep) shooting. Nikola Jokic notched his 20th double-double of the season with 18 points and 15 rebounds in a battle with Dwight Howard in the paint. Will Barton added 17 points, but missed all nine of his 3-point attempts, unable to re-capture his long range magic from two nights ago.

The Hawks were led by the speedy Dennis Schroder‘s 24 points and ten assists, Millsap’s 23 points and Kent Bazemore‘s 14 points, 3-4 3 point shooting and innumerable hustle plays.

The scoring began with consecutive turnovers by Gary Harris and Chandler leading to back-to-back Kent Bazemore 3-pointers and that continued to be the theme for the rest of the half. Atlanta’s guards continually got around their Nuggets defenders, and the Hawks made them pay by hitting seemingly every open jumper they saw. And they saw a lot of open jumpers.

Halfway through the opening period, the Hawks had made all three of their 3-point attempts while the Nuggets had missed all four of theirs. Atlanta was also able to separate themselves by running the fast break off of Nuggets turnovers and missed shots. At one point leading to (the first) alley-oop from Schroder to Tim Hardaway, Jr., capping an 8-2 Hawks run and 35-23 lead overall.

Atlanta finished the quarter shooting 60 percent from the field and 57 percent from long distance. Four Nuggets turnovers led to nine Hawks points, which also happened to be the Denver deficit after one quarter. 39 points is the most scored by Atlanta this season.

Darrell Arthur was able to provide some scoring for the Nuggets to open the second quarter, knocking down consecutive 3-pointers for Denver’s first six points, but Atlanta continued to knock down open jumpers and run the fastbreak. Bazemore continued his assault on the Nuggets porous defense, scoring seven consecutive points and leading to a 50-36 Atlanta lead and he was helped by the backcourt duo of Schroder and Hardaway, whose second alley-oop connection opened up an 18-point lead for Atlanta late in the half.

Kenneth Faried was lost two minutes into the quarter with a sprained right ankle, and Nikola Jokic was lost for the rest of the half a few minutes later after picking up his third foul of the game fighting for a rebound against Dwight Howard.

The Hawks finished with a 72-55 advantage in the half, scoring more points in a half than they have all season long thanks to their fast break (17 points) and 3 point shooting (7-15).

Denver managed six steals in the third quarter and finally started to knock down open shots, but Atlanta’s opportunistic defense and finely tuned fastbreak kept the Nuggets from fighting all the way back and the Hawks entered the fourth quarter with an 11-point lead.

Murray and Hernangomez led a furious charge in the fourth quarter, getting the Nuggets back into striking distance and Barton found Harris for a fastbreak dunk off of an Atlanta miss, giving the Hawk’s a taste of their own medicine, to cut the lead to 109-105. Harris then had a chance to cut the lead to one, but had his wide open 3 point shot go in-and-out.

Millsap completed a 3 point play on the other end with just under two minutes left in the game to go up 112-105 and the Hawks hit their free throws the rest of the way to finish with a 117-106 victory.

Footnotes

The Nuggets were without Danilo Gallinari (groin) and Emmanuel Mudiay (back) once again with Wilson Chandler and Jameer Nelson filling in for them in the starting lineup.

Faried’s X-ray’s came back negative, but his status for Friday night’s game is uncertain.

What’s Next

The Nuggets continue their east coast swing in New York against Carmelo Anthony and the Knicks. Jokic gets another chance to battle one of the best young big men in the game in Kristaps Porzingis.