The Phoenix Suns came into Denver on a snowy Friday night and literally set the Pepsi Center nets on fire.
Brandon Knight, who shook off a sprained ankle in the first half scored a career high 38 points, grabbed 11 rebounds, dished out 6 assists and converted on 6-10 three pointers, while Eric Bledsoe poured in 22 points and Phoenix used a second-half three point shooting barrage to topple the Nugget 114-107 and drop Denver to 6-7 on the season.
The game which almost got out of hand in the fourth quarter when the Suns were shooting one uncontested three after another, was really a tale of two halves. In the opening two quarters, the Nuggets looked like the same team that had just won four of their last five and was building some momentum in the young season, yet the second half displayed just how far Denver is away on any given night from competing in the West.
Will Barton injected life into another less-than-optimal home crowd when he entered the game with 3:17 left in the first quarter and promptly let the Nuggets on a 14-0 run. He scored seven points in that three minute stretch, displaying the aggressiveness and bull-dog like mentality he’s shown throughout Denver’s four in five run where he’s averaged 17 points and 6.4 rebounds while shooting above 50 percent from the field and 3-point line.
“We had some very good stretches of basketball in that first half tonight,” Malone said. “But that’s been our problem, we very rarely put together a 48 minute effort. We have great spurts but we are far from being a 48 minute team and that’s what you need to be competitive team in the NBA.”
That Barton-led run gave the Nuggets the momentum and energy they needed to go into the half leading 63-49. Emmanuel Mudiay’s 14-point first half paced Denver as well, but at the break, a switch was flipped in Phoenix’s favor.
Phoenix went on to outscore Denver 31-21 in the third quarter and that’s when the Suns started heating up from the three point line, a theme that would carry on throughout the night.
Denver fought back though. Mudiay finished with a career high with 26 points on 10-16 shooting and Gary Harris had a quiet 20 points in 28 minutes – also a career high. The career night from Mudiay is a positive, but it doesn’t give the rookie any satisfaction when losing in that manner.
“We lost so that’s all that matters to me,” Mudiay sad. “I really want to make it to the playoffs this year, we’re tied for eight [in the Western Conference] but we got a real hard schedule coming up with great teams so we gotta lock in, buckle up and play our best defense that we’ve played all season.”
The momentum Denver built quickly evaporated when Danilo Gallinari, who finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds was whistled for a questionable foul call on Knight with Denver down 102-97 late in the fourth. Gallo then voiced his frustration to the referee, was called for a technical foul, and put an early dagger in Denver’s hopes.
A Harris corner three and Mudiay run out and finish brought Denver back to within six, 110-104, but three missed free-throws, two from Kenneth Faried and one from Mudiay killed the Nuggets momentum once again.
Another back-breaking three from Knight fell with 1:22 left and it was goodnight from Pepsi Center.
After the game, a visibly frustrated Michael Malone called out his players for not giving the effort required in the second half to keep the Suns at bay.
“We have some guys on this team that pick and choose when they play hard,” Malone said. “And those guys aren’t going to play.”
Malone elaborated.
“I can’t even fathom when you have a home game and you’re up by 17, how guys could not even play hard,” Malone said. “That’s unacceptable, and I told them you play hard or you’re going to sit, I don’t care who you are.”
What Malone was referring to was most likely the uncontested threes and lack of a defensive intensity from Denver in tonight’s second half. Time and time again, Denver big men failed to communicate defensive assignments, guards failed to rotate to open shooters and the Nuggets seemed one step behind the Suns throughout the second half.
“Our inability to guard the three point line is a joke,” Malone said. “We’re one of the worst teams in the NBA in guarding the three point line. Every night we give up just a ridiculous amount of threes.”
Tonight that number was 15, up significantly from the league leading 9.8 threes the Nuggets have allowed per game this season. Denver should have seen this coming, Phoenix came into tonight making 9.5 threes per game, tied for the third highest amount league wide.
In the disastrous second half, Denver’s offense got stagnant. At one point, two straight Gallinari isolations yielded no return and the Nuggets put together possession after possession where they didn’t get below the 3-point line.
“It’s a team game and you have to help each other on offense, you have to help each other on defense,” Malone said. “We don’t screen, we refuse to help get somebody open to being selfish is not just not passing the ball, but it’s not helping to get a guy open.”
The upcoming stretch doesn’t get any easier for the Nuggets. They welcome to defending world champion Golden State Warriors to Pepsi Center on Sunday, before facing the Clippers, Spurs, Mavericks and Bucks in a week’s time.
“The good thing is we have three easy games coming up,” Malone joked as he headed for the locker room.
