The Denver Nuggets have 25 games standing between them and the franchise’s first playoff birth in three years. But if the Nuggets continue to play like they did in their 100-116 loss to the Sacramento Kings, they won’t taste the NBA’s second season in Michael Malone’s second year at the helm.

Perhaps it was because the Kings, in the aftermath of the trade that sent Sacramento lifer DeMarcus Cousins to New Orleans, came out with an aggressive, in your face mindset. Maybe it was the fact that the Nuggets, for the first time in recent memory, had a fully healthy rotation meaning new and unfamiliar faces playing together again.

No excuse makes up for the Nuggets’ performance coming out of last week’s All-Star break.

Denver was flat from the start, falling behind by 17 at the half, before a spirited run in the third brought the margin to within nine. That was the closest the Nuggets got to the Kings throughout the rest of the night.

Nikola Jokic came out of the All-Star break lacking aggression. Jokic finished with just four points, ten rebounds and two assists in 26 minutes. Gary Harris led Denver with 23 points including five threes, while Danilo Gallinari added 15 points. Wilson Chandler scored 18 points off the bench while Will Barton added 16.

For Sacramento, who got 72 of their 116 points from their bench, Willie Cauley-Stein scored a career-high 29 points on 14-22 shooting to go with ten rebounds. New King Buddy Hield added 16 points off the bench in his Sacramento debut. Darren Collison added 15 points.

Denver opened the first quarter and featured Gallinari early and often. Gallinari, who missed the Nuggets’ past five games before the All-Star break score a game-high nine points in the quarter on 3-4 shooting. Gallinari’s showed no ill-effects from a groin that had bothered him leading into the break.

In the first quarter, the Kings shot 13-26 (50 percent) from the field and got Cauley-Stein going, who chipped in eight points on 4-4 shooting in the frame. Cauley-Stein led Sacramento’s bench who finished with 18 points in the quarter alone.

Then, a disastrous second quarter that saw the Kings outscore the Nuggets 32-18 and capitalize on 11 Denver turnovers leading to 21 Sacramento points. Cauley-Stein, picking up the slack offensively without Cousins, finished that half with 19 points on 9-12 shooting.

Jokic played just 12 minutes in the first half despite accumulating just one foul and was benched after an inefficient first two quarters in favor of Plumlee who closed the second quarter with the starting group.

A 50-25 run first-half Kings run put the Nugget behind by 17, 44-61- at the half.

The Nuggets went on a 14-2 run at the start of the third quarter to trim the margin to nine and looked for a moment that Denver found themselves for the first time all game. But the Kings responded to stretch their lead back up to 17 entering the fourth.

A Barton three with just over nine minutes remaining in the fourth brought Denver to within 13, but again, the Kings responded. Denver never got closer than that margin as they dropped to 25-32 on the season.

Malone is now 0-6 against the Kings.

Footnotes

A fully-healthy Nuggets roster led to former starting point guard Emmanuel Mudiay getting left out of Denver’s rotation altogether. Jamal Murray played all of the backup one minutes behind Jameer Nelson.

Gallinari returned to Denver’s starting lineup after missing the past five games with a left groin injury. As did Kenneth Faried, who also started after missing time with an ankle injury.

What’s Next

The Nuggets return home and host the Brooklyn Nets on a back-to-back Friday and then Memphis at home again Sunday.