“If anybody in here is sensitive, get up and leave now.”
That’s what Michael Malone told his players Monday morning prior to an open, honest and direct film session where Denver’s coach played 13 clips that demonstrated what he identified as poor shot selection, bad turnovers and selfish basketball from the Nuggets’ 122-105 loss to the Warriors on Friday.
The defeat — Denver’s fourth loss in five games — dropped the Nuggets to 4-4 since the All-Star break, and with the team trending in the wrong direction over the last two weeks, the candid conversation between coaches and players was much-needed. Although some thought it could have happened sooner than it ultimately did.
“Good, honest conversation is always good. It’s been past due,” Paul Millsap said. “We’ve been able to get away with a few games by not playing the right way, and it was good to come here and hear some criticism, get back to doing what we do. Sometimes guys don’t know what they’re doing wrong. And if we don’t nip it in the bud, it can become a habit. And we’re trying to break a lot of habits. We’ve broken a lot of habits this year. We’re trying to get back to our good habits.”
Denver’s recent struggles, which uncharacteristically have shown up on the offensive end of the floor as of late, came to a head in Golden State where the Warriors blitzed the Nuggets and raced out to a 27-8 first-quarter advantage.
The Nuggets’ starting unit, which had been rock-solid since reuniting two weeks ago after spending more than four months apart, faltered, and while Denver’s bench eventually evened the score midway through the second quarter, the Warriors’ championship pedigree emerged after halftime.
“We weren’t ready to play,” said Malone. “When you play against the best team in the NBA who’s won three out of four championships coming off an ass-kicking, we thought we could just show up and play. We’ve got a young team. They’ve got to understand what they’re walking into. We did not match the urgency, the intensity that was needed in that game to the level of our competing. That’s why our starting group was so bad. Because we weren’t ready to play.”
Since the All-Star break, the Nuggets are the second-best defense in the league but rank just 18th on offense, a far cry from the third-ranked attack Denver boasted over the season’s first 58 games. In their last eight outings, the Nuggets are also shooting just 43.5 percent from the field, the third-worst percentage in the league over that span.
The equal-opportunity, read-and-react basketball that has been a Nuggets staple over the last few seasons hasn’t shown up for the full four quarters in some time, causing some unrest. Denver’s recent play led to Malone labeling his team’s offensive execution as “selfish,” a surprising but somewhat accurate assessment of the Nuggets’ democratic offensive system which has turned more autocratic at times over the last two weeks.
“It hasn’t been the same, especially on the offensive end,” Millsap said speaking to the Nuggets’ recent woes on offense. “When the ball’s not moving, the ball has no energy. When the ball has no energy, the team has no energy. And our team hasn’t had energy for the past couple of weeks. Offense has been our staple for years, and we’ve just got to get back to doing what we do.”
Chew on this stat: Prior to the All-Star break, the Nuggets were averaging roughly 312 passes per game, good for the seventh-highest mark in the league. But since then, Denver is completing just 266 passes per game. Only five teams are passing the ball less per game than the Nuggets since Feb. 22 and the 1,865 passes Denver has completed over its last eight games is the second-lowest mark in the league.
As a team, the Nuggets had 30 zero- or one-pass possessions against the Warriors.
Maybe the Nuggets left their offensive identity on South Beach or whatever tropical destination Denver’s players jetted off to during the mid-February break. But this is the stretch run, where the Nuggets need to batten down the hatches with only 17 regular season games remaining and get back to their core values. They’ve gotten Denver this far.
“We’re an unselfish team. Offensively, we’ve been struggling due to the fact that we haven’t moved the basketball like we’re supposed to,” said Millsap. “We play team basketball on the offensive end. Defensively we’ve done great, but offensively we haven’t moved it like we’re supposed to.”
“A lot of these guys haven’t been in this situation,” Millsap added. “Situations like this, especially younger guys, you tend to press, they tend to try to do too much and I think our team has done that. We tried to do too much at times and its gotten us in trouble.”
A three-game week against the Timberwolves, Mavs and Pacers at Pepsi Center where the Nuggets have lost just six times all season can flip the script on Denver’s post-All-Star break cold streak rather quickly.
Because winning cures all, right?
Another adjustment that would aid the Nuggets’ attack is more opportunities on the offensive end of the floor for Nikola Jokic. Denver’s star center has been relatively quiet over his past two games in the scoring column, tallying 12 and 16 points, respectively, in his last two outings. His touches are down, too. Jokic averaged around 94 touches per game prior to the All-Star break but is only averaging 80 over his last eight games.
“If you want to help Nikola out, give him the ball,” said Malone. “Something good happens when he touches it.”
There’s no panic from the Nuggets, who are still second in the West and just one game back of the Warriors in the loss column, even after dropping four of five. As Malone broadcasted on Monday, the Nuggets have to “pound the stone” and get back to who they are.
The identity crisis that Denver is facing after a three-game road trip where it went just 1-2 needs to be resolved before the playoffs if the Nuggets want to have a chance at getting out of the first round.
“When you face adversity, you’ve got to start thinking we instead of me,” said Malone. “No one person can take a team and put them on their back. We don’t have that guy. What we have is a five-man group that can play together and get us out of that hole. Hopefully, we can get back to that.”
