Ten nuggets for 10 Nuggets rejections that came in a hard-fought 108-107 overtime win over the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday.
1. Paul Millsap struggled to score in the real estate around the hoop in Denver’s first six games. The starkest example came last week against the Lakers when Millsap got stuffed by the rim on a wide-open dunk attempt. He lacked touch. His timing was off. But that wasn’t the case in Chicago.
Millsap’s two-handed tip-in of Nikola Jokic’s miss with 0.1 seconds left in overtime helped Denver avoid an embarrassing loss to a bad Bulls team and improve to 6-1 — its best start since the 1985-86 season. As usual, Millsap was in the right place at the right time. His final line: 19 points on 8-for-13 shooting, six rebounds and three blocks. It was his second consecutive strong offensive performance. He did most of his damage inside.
2. Millsap is rounding into form on the offensive end. Defensively, he’s been excellent all year, and that continued against the Bulls. Millsap got a piece of Justin Holliday’s fadeaway with the score knotted at 98 at the end of regulation.
Then in overtime, Millsap stripped Wendell Carter Jr. before the rookie could get a shot off.
The Nuggets are allowing 96.2 points per 100 possessions when Millsap is on the floor — a mark identical to what the Celtics, the NBA’s best defensive team so far, are giving up. That number rises to 106.8 points per 100 possessions when Millsap sits. He’s been one of the most impactful defensive players in basketball early on.
3. What a weird game from Jokic. He couldn’t find his rhythm in the first half and pouted his way through most of regulation. There were times when he lollygagged back on defense after missing a shot. But when crunch time arrived, Jokic did a 180. He scored eight of Denver’s 10 points in the extra period, connecting on a pretty turnaround and a pair of 3s. Jokic’s numbers — 22 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists — looked excellent. But Denver needed more from its best player from the first whistle. When things aren’t going his way, he can’t mope.
4. We need ESPN to bring back Sports Science for the sole purpose of deconstructing the art of a Mason Plumlee reverse finish. The people deserve John Brenkus telling us in his John Brenkus voice about the weird ways Plumlee contorts his body when he makes a shot without looking at the hoop.
Has anyone ever attempted reverse finishes with more regularity than Denver’s backup center? What is the average angle between Plumlee’s back and arms when he goes up? Get Brenkus on this ASAP.
5. Denver just keeps winning. As Gary Harris said earlier this week, “That’s the point of it all.” But at some point, the Nuggets are going to need to knock down outside shots to get the results they’re looking for. They went 7-for-26 on 3-pointers against the Bulls. They pulled out the win even though Chicago shot 16-for-34 from long range.
The Nuggets were one of the better 3-point shooting teams in the NBA last season. They averaged 11.5 3-point makes per game. Seven games into the 2018-19 season, they’ve failed to go over that mark. Their 3s made each game: eight, nine, six, 11, six, 11 and five. The tide’s got to turn soon, right?
6. It’s a little surprising to see Jamal Murray get off to a sluggish start. In an anonymous preseason poll, NBA GMs predicted Murray to win Most Improved Player. It’s early, but Murray’s got some catching up to do if he wants to be competitive in that race. In Denver’s first seven games, he’s needed 14 shots attempts to average 16 points. He’s shooting 27.8 percent from 3-point territory. Murray loves to go to his step-back jumper when a big gets switched onto him. His go-to move isn’t bearing much fruit right now.
7. How about Harris hammering everything?
Harris dunked the ball twice against the Bulls, and he’s already up to eight dunks on the season. He’s well on his way to eclipsing his 46 dunks from 2017-18. Can he keep up this torrid pace?
8. Down the stretch Wednesday, Nuggets coach Michael Malone decided to roll with Murray, Harris, Malik Beasley, Millsap and Jokic. Going with the four starters wasn’t a surprise. Throwing Beasley in there was. Beasley hit a clutch jumper to tie the score at 98, and overall, he defended Zach LaVine pretty well.
Malone’s decision to try to get the ball to Beasley at the end of regulation was a shocker. The give-and-go play between Jokic and Beasley almost worked.
Kudos to Malone for dialing up a simple play that absolutely nobody in the United Center saw coming.
9. The inability to win on the road was one of the major factors that kept the Nuggets out of the playoffs last season. They went 15-26 away from Pepsi Center. They’re 2-1 on the road this season with a win over the Clippers on opening night, a loss to the Lakers and Wednesday’s narrow win. They could use a convincing road effort tonight in Cleveland against the Cavs.
10. #SOON
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— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) November 1, 2018
