Pace, tempo, and the return of Will Barton: How the Nuggets got back to their roots and beat the Heat

Six possessions, six baskets.

Scoring hadn’t come this easy to the Nuggets in what seemed like weeks. The ball moved swiftly from side-to-side, and Denver got up the floor and into its offense with a purpose, playing with a tempo and pace that had only seen the light of day in small spurts to open the 2019-20 campaign. The Nuggets finally saw some of their open threes drop through the nylon. A weight was lifted as Denver scored on each of its first six trips down the court.

“I saw signs of life, in terms of getting back to Denver Nuggets basketball,” Michael Malone said after the Nuggets’ 109-89 win over the Heat Tuesday which improved Denver’s mark to 5-2 on the season.

It’s still early in the NBA calendar, but also increasingly difficult to imagine that an offense built around the playmaking of Nikola Jokic, the scoring punch of Jamal Murray and the steady hand that role players like Gary Harris, Paul Millsap, and Monte Morris provide had sputtered like it did to begin the season. But there the Nuggets stood prior to Tuesday night, six games into the year and the 20th-ranked offense in the league.

The Nuggets began the year shooting 33% on “wide-open” 3s, when the closest defender was at least six feet away. Denver was also playing at the league’s slowest pace, and while the Nuggets have always marched to a leisurely beat behind Jokic, they have typically been one of the better half-court attacks in the league. That had been far from the case to start the season, so much so that the Nuggets made playing faster a key point of emphasis heading into a pivotal two-game homestand.

Those open 3s finally fell against Miami. Torrey Craig, who hadn’t sunk a long-range heave since opening night against the Trail Blazers and had missed his last 10 triples, even got one to fall from the left wing. Jerami Grant, who’s shooting just 24% from distance this season, got two 3s to drop. Overall, the Nuggets shot 9-23 (39.1%) from 3 and drilled four of their nine attempts that NBA.com classified as “wide-open.”

The tempo that the Nuggets operate with when the wheels of their democratic offensive attack are turning at full force was back too. Even though the final box score shows that the Nuggets played at only a slightly faster pace (98 possessions) compared to what they averaged per game on the season heading into Tuesday night (96.98 possessions), Denver got into its offense quicker and with more of a purpose.

“Coach Malone has been putting more emphasis on it,” said Monte Morris who finished with 11 points on 5 of 7 shooting and eight assists in one of his better games of the season. “I think we’re one of the slowest teams in pace right now in the NBA. We’re too young to be playing at that pace. We just have to get back to it, but it starts with getting stops and going from there. I think tonight we were all having fun sharing the ball and that’s the type of basketball everyone is used to seeing. We’re slowly getting back to it.”

Tuesday was the Nuggets’ most impressive win of the young season. Denver held Miami to 36.4% shooting but more importantly shot better than 50% from the field for the first time this year, hardly the result many expected against the No. 1 ranked defense in the league after a two-game road trip where the Nuggets were inconsistent, dry and predictable on the offensive end of the floor.

The Nuggets found a steady offensive rhythm to open the game and shot a healthy 57% over the game’s first 12 minutes but only led 29-28 after the first quarter. It wasn’t until a 12-0 run mid-way through the second after Denver found itself trailing by three that the Nuggets were able to gain any sort of separation. From there, the Nuggets took off, expanding their lead to double-figures in the second half and cruising to a 20-point win.

“We competed,” said Will Barton about the Nuggets’ mid-second quarter spurt. “You have to do that against Miami. They’ve been rolling early in the season, and they have that culture of playing real hard, and are well-coached, Just a great run organization from top to bottom, so you got to be ready to play hard against them or you’ll get blown out.”

Much maligned for his play last season, Barton is taking a victory lap on his critics to begin the year. He’s been one of the Nuggets’ strongest offensive options to open the season and has scored in double-figures in four of the five games he’s played in. After missing the last two games with left toe inflammation, Barton ditched his walking boot and chipped in 15 points on 5 of 10 shooting against the Heat. It was welcome sight for a starting lineup which had struggled in his absence.

The Nuggets’ starting five of Murray, Harris, Barton, Millsap, and Jokic is blowing the doors off their opponents to start the season despite only shooting 41.9% from the floor and 30.4% from 3. That lineup has already outscored its opposition by a whopping 38 points (213-175) in just 98 minutes and by 15.9 points per 100 possessions, which is good for the fifth-most efficient lineup in the league that’s logged at least 50 minutes together this year. The Nuggets’ Murray-Harris-Barton-Millsap-Plumlee five, which was Denver’s most-used lineup Tuesday while Jokic, who finished with nine points, five rebounds and five assists, dealt with foul trouble, outscored Miami 18-6 in eight minutes of action.

Remember the Nuggets’ “open competition” at small forward throughout training camp?  That seems like ages ago. Barton has quickly put to rest any questions about his standing and fit with Denver’s first five.

The dynamic Barton adds to the Nuggets’ starting lineup shouldn’t be undersold. With Harris, who was knocked out of the game with an ankle injury shortly before halftime (the Nuggets believe he’ll be able to play Friday versus the 76ers) struggling to open the season, Denver needs Barton’s playmaking from the starting three spot. He’s opened the season shooting 50% from beyond the arc and is playing with the same confidence and swagger that he did during a breakout 2017-18 campaign.

Barton earned much of the credit for neutralizing Jimmy Butler too, who finished with just 16 points on only 3 of 12 shooting. Butler did get to the line 12 times, knocking in 10 of his attempts but struggled to find a rhythm offensively thanks to Barton and Harris’ defensive presence on the wing.

“I think Will is a guy, when you give him a matchup like a Jimmy Butler, like a Paul George, like certain players and marquee names, he really gets up for those guys,” Malone said. “Jimmy is an All-NBA type of player. I think Will was locked in, he understood what we were trying to do as a team, but he also understood what he had to do individually to try and make life difficult for Jimmy Butler. Not one player is going to stop Jimmy. I think we, as a team, did a good job. I think Will, when he’s locked in and focused like he’s playing right now, he gives you a lot of positives on both ends of the floor.”

Barton’s two-way play served as a microcosm for the Nuggets’ performance Tuesday. Denver played its most complete game of the year as the Nuggets got another strong performance from Jamal Murray (21 points, five rebounds, four assists) against a team in the Heat who profiled as the Nuggets’ most-difficult opponent to date. The only negatives were injuries to Harris and Millsap, who received 11 stitches after a collision with Justice Winslow that knocked him out of the game in the third quarter. Millsap did not enter concussion protocol as of Tuesday night and Denver expects him to be available Friday.

For for first time this season the Nuggets looked like last year’s 54-win team that overwhelmed opponents with unpredictable offense and stingy defense for four quarters.

Perhaps it was as simple as getting Barton back. Or maybe the Nuggets are ready to kiss their early-season struggles goodbye for good.