The List: The final possession against the Sacramento Kings was a failure on all accounts

“The List” is a brand new series that serves as a companion piece for the “Notebook” episodes of the Locked on Nuggets podcast and the DNVR Nuggets podcast. In this edition, I share some notes on a concerning collapse against the Sacramento Kings.

1. Gary Harris exploded for 18 points in the first quarter, setting a season-high in just 11:07 of play thanks to plays like the examples below. Pay attention to the way that Buddy Hield positions himself to trail Harris off of the handoff with Nikola Jokic. Harris reads Hield’s commitment to trail the handoff so he makes a quick curl cut toward the basket.

2. Jamal Murray is an under rated post defender for a guard.

3. “Single-side tags” refer to the situations when a defense is forced to send help on the pick-and-roll (PnR) from a help-side defender who is alone on one side of the court. The single-side tag guy is alone on an island guarding his man but is forced to choose between helping the rolling big or sticking close to his man, usually a spot-up three-point shooter. Forcing a defense into a single-side tag is akin to placing a chess player in checkmate. There are no good options. You can only pick your poison. So to prevent these situations, on-ball defenders must recognize those situations early and try to force the ball-handler away from the PnR.

4. Defense at the NBA level can be incredibly complicated. Every player on the court is a threat to shoot, drive, or pass so defenders must make multiple reads in quick succession.

5. One of my biggest pet peeves in basketball.

6. Will Barton has been great defensively this year but he made a critical error in the final minutes of regulation when he left Hield open on the wing. Hield had been struggling with his three-point shot through three and a half quarters but got this open look to go and then hit another one shortly after.

7. The last play of overtime was a failure of execution and game plan.