Despite superb effort in an attempt to rally back, DeMarcus Cousins once again proved to be too much to handle for the Nuggets front-court as he scored 39 points (76 points in two games vs. Denver) en route to a 114-110 win.
THE RUNDOWN
First Quarter – Starters: Emmanuel Mudiay, Gary Harris, Danilo Gallinari, Kenneth Faried, Nikola Jokic
Nikola Jokic had his fingerprints all over the first quarter as he scored just three points but dished out four assists and gobbled up seven boards.
His ability to generate steals, grab offensive boards and his elite passing vision are what make him such a rare talent and all three were in effect on this particular play:
On top of his stellar play, Jokic also managed to get two quick fouls on Cousins. Unfortunately, Karl decided to play him anyway and the Nuggets still had no answer for him with Jusuf Nurkic being curiously buried in Michael Malone’s doghouse. Cousins barreled his way through the Nuggets big men for a quarter-high 8 points on 3-3 shooting.
Malone cites Nurkic being unable to practice yesterday (knee) for him not playing vs Kings. Wanna play, gotta practice.
— Nate Timmons (@NateTimmonsBSN) February 24, 2016
End of first: Kings up 28-25.
Second Quarter – Starters: D.J. Augustin, Will Barton, JaKarr Sampson, Darrell Arthur, Joffrey Lauvergne
JaKarr Sampson checked in for the first time and immediately had a vicious block. Other than that he hustled, but was not very productive in general amassing just one rebound and shooting 0-2 from the field.
Having missed the last two games, this was my first opportunity to see D.J. Augustin in a Nuggets uniform and he impressed right away. He made crisp passes and aggressive decisions right from the get-go. He already had great chemistry with Lauvergne and seems to be the ideal back-up point guard pickup. Credit has to be given to Tim Connelly for not only snatching Augustin up for Foye, but also two second round draft picks.
Arthur started to heat up hitting his first three shots, including 2 three-pointers. When he’s hitting his shot, there aren’t very many big men more valuable than Darrell. Extremely underrated by not only fans around the NBA, but even fans right here in Denver! Never made much sense.
Unforunately, Nurkic stayed in the doghouse and Cousins kept up his rampage, scoring yet another quarter-high 8 points for a total of 16 at the half.
End of second: Kings up 61-50.
Third Quarter – Starters: Mudiay, Harris, Gallinari, Faried, Jokic
This is where Cousins truly looked unstoppable. The big man hit 6-9 of his shots from the field in the quarter including 2-2 from beyond the arc. Cousins had expanded his range this season, taking a staggering 3.5 attempts per game from three, up from just 0.1 attempts last year. He’s converting at a 35.3% clip this season.
Cousins has become the undisputed best offensive big man in the league and he showcased that tonight against a Nuggets team with absolutely no answer for his rare combination of size, strength and speed. He dropped 15 in the third quarter alone and single-handedly kept the Nuggets at bay.
End of third: Nets up 81-78.
Fourth Quarter – Starters: Foye, Harris, Barton, Gallinari, Joffrey
The fourth quarter was a classic case of “Malone-coached team digs in and fights back”. This story has been told many times this season and never gets old, Denver — instead of just lying down and giving up, the Nuggets rallied back to make it an edge-of-your-seat game. Gotta love the fight Malone has instilled in these guys.
Malone has made it clear that if you don’t give effort and don’t genuinely care about the game, you won’t play. Nurkic had still not made an appearance at this point, after Cousins had just rampaged through the entire Nuggets front-court, and it’s easy to assume this is why. Nurkic has an attitude of cockiness or “I-don’t-really-care” about him and I think Malone is trying to wring that out of him. His body language throughout the game indicated this was having the opposite effect as Nurkic looked disinterested and was noticeably out of the team huddles, staring at the jumbo-tron. Not the greatest sight for Nuggets fans.
The rally back was led by Barton and Augustin who scored 14 and 10 fourth quarter points, respectively. They were making big play after big play to drag the Nuggets back into a close game. Although they provided the one-two scoring punch, make no mistake — the entire Nuggets team was contributing to the run. Watch the beautiful ball movement on this play leading to a wide open Barton three:
That’s poetry in motion right there. Of course, there are other ways to get the job done, like Augustin making a play by himself and hitting a nice stepback three to give the Nuggets their first lead since the opening quarter:
The Nuggets fought hard but ultimately fell due to the problem that was ailing them all night long: DeMarcus. With under a minute left in the game, Cousins picked Augustin’s pocket from the top of the key, leading to a one-on-one fastbreak on the other end… D.J. isn’t going to win many of those against that freight train of a man.
It effectively put the game out of reach before Jokic hit a big time three to give the Nuggets one last glimmer of hope:
Unfortunately Denver couldn’t take advantage as they ended up with Arthur under the basket being wrapped up by Cousins and the referees not seeing any contact. You can watch the last play of the game here, as well as Malone’s opinion on whether or not it was a foul:
Final: Kings win 114-110.
WHERE/WHEN
Pepsi Center, Denver, CO | Feb. 23rd | Regular Season Game 57 (22-35)
BY THE NUMBERS
NBA.com
It was a classic case of team vs. superstar as 8/10 Nuggets scored double-digits against Cousins’ 39 points.
The team shot very poorly from the field, indicative of the terrible shot selection tonight. Gallinari in particular needs to stop shooting so many contest long two-pointers. End of the shot-clock is fine, but the vast majority of them are mere seconds into the possession. Mismatches are nice… but there are more ways to exploit them than just shooting over the shorter player.
Always notable when Mudiay has 0 turnovers. This is just the second time it’s happened this season, although he has four games with just one turnover.
PLAYS OF THE GAME
The Manimal tells Rajon Rondo to GET THAT WEAK STUFF OUTTA HERE
Harris showing off THE MOVES with a sick behind the back pass to Faried:
Mudiay ends up with the steal, makes a nice pass to Faried for the gorgeous reverse layup:
WHAT’S NEXT
Let’s hope there are No More Parties In L.A. as the Nuggets fly to Los Angeles and get ready to bounce back against three straight losses when they finish their back-to-back against the Clippers tomorrow night. Tip off is at 8:30 p.m. MT.
