Two days after Nikola Jokic bluntly said the Nuggets are “not a good shooting team,” he tried to take matters into his own hands.
His 41 points and career-high seven 3-pointers still weren’t enough in a 109-104 loss to the Clippers in Saturday afternoon’s home opener at Ball Arena. Down three with 14 seconds left, Denver drew up a play for Jokic to get a look at the top of the key, but he leaned into his shot and was unable to draw contact while the ball missed to the left.
With 1:35 remaining, a slumping Michael Porter Jr. passed up an open 3 to feed the hot hand on the opposite wing. Jokic made the decision worth it, burying his seventh for a 101-100 Nuggets lead. But a red-hot Norman Powell delivered a game-tying 3 of his own with 53 seconds left, and Michael Malone’s unsuccessful challenge of a foul call put James Harden on the line for go-ahead free throws with 31 to go. Jokic missed one of two foul shots when he was put on the line with a chance to tie it.
Powell led the Clippers with 35 points on 7-of-11 shooting from deep. Harden added 21 points with 12 at the foul line, while Ivica Zubac went for 24 points and 15 rebounds. Murray scored 22 points for Denver.
On the heels of their worst 3-point shooting game in the Malone era (7 for 39), the Nuggets were on pace to outdo themselves early. They made just nine of their first 39 total shots from the field and shot 5 for 19 in the paint during the first half, outscored 30-10 in the lane.
“I know everybody’s saying, ‘Make shots!’ But I feel even before that, I thought our spacing was awful at times,” Malone had told reporters 90 minutes before tip. “I mean, just getting guys to the corner. Open the court up. Use the entire depth and width of the court. Getting more organized, especially with our second unit, and allowing Dario (Saric) to be a part of that offense. So we know that there’s gonna be growing pains trying to incorporate two new players in Russ (Westbrook) and Dario.”
Unlike Thursday, when Westbrook and Julian Strawther replaced Murray and Christian Braun as Denver’s first substitutions, Strawther checked in alone this time — for Michael Porter Jr. Even with that immediate adjustment to Malone’s rotations, the second unit dug a hole, clearly struggling with chemistry and where to be positioned on the floor.
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When Murray joined Porter in a double-stagger to start the second quarter, the lineup won its minutes by a point and executed its actions better — but still, nobody could buy a bucket. The starting lineup didn’t help. Rock bottom was at the 4:57 mark of the half when Malone called a timeout trailing 42-24.
Out of that timeout? Consecutive 3s for Murray, Aaron Gordon and Jokic to do half the work in an 80-second stretch. The starters survived into halftime, down 48-42, and the third quarter looked more like a normal Nuggets game. Ten of their first 12 points were in the paint. They generated easy, close-range shots without much difficulty and only struggled to keep up at first because their defense wasn’t quite meeting their offense’s level.
Then it was. In a second straight game in which Westbrook didn’t shoot the ball well, his energy at the other end made an impact. He picked the pocket of former teammate James Harden late in the third, allowing Braun to scoop the loose ball for a go-ahead layup in transition. Denver nursed a one-point lead into and throughout the fourth until the Clippers took a 96-94 lead with 3:04 remaining off a bad Murray turnover. Derrick Jones Jr. was in prime revenge cherry-picking position for the dunk after running into a screen in the back-court and being slow to get up while Ball Arena mocked him.
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