No team has been hit harder by injuries than the Denver Nuggets this NBA season and they are not only trying to cope without Jamal Murray, who is still in the midst of ACL recovery, but they are trying to find ways to win without Michael Porter Jr. and P.J. Dozier, both of which suffered season-ending injuries early on.
Heading into Wednesday night’s matchup against the Thunder in Oklahoma City, last season’s MVP Nikola Jokic was averaging 26.4 points, 13.1 rebounds and 9.2 assists in the month of December and had recorded a double-double in all nine games for Denver. The Nuggets had won 4 of their last 6 games due to the heroics of Jokic, but they suffered a major setback against the Thunder.
The Nuggets lost 108-94 against a young and athletic Thunder team in a game that they really let get away from them. Oklahoma City came out of the gates hot and led Denver by eight points at the half, but then they opened up a 23-point lead in the second-half.
Nuggets’ head coach Michael Malone had seen enough of his starters, including Nikola Jokic, and he decided to pull all five of them from the game with 4:51 left in the third-quarter. The bench gave Denver a big jolt, cutting the lead to just 10 points with 6 minutes to go in the game, yet Malone never turned back to his starters and Denver lost a game that they really needed to win.
LATEST NBA NEWS: Denver Nuggets In Desperate Need Of Someone To Step Up Around Jokic
“I really applaud the effort by our bench,” Malone said following his team’s loss. “Those guys went out there and competed and played hard … That’s all I ever care about. … As a coach, what I really care about is when you play and you compete and you play the right way. We didn’t have that from our starting group.”
“When in doubt, I’m gonna play guys that want to go out there and play hard.”
We have seen a handful of head coaches go with the “hot group” on the floor instead of their stars at times, but last night’s decision by Michael Malone was a very questionable one. Teams like the Suns and Warriors, the two best teams in the league, can afford to ride their bench and rest their starters in games against teams like the Thunder, but the Nuggets really need to win every game they can.
This team is now 15-15 on the season, they have a ton of players on the injury list and their playoff hopes are slowly starting to slip away. The Western Conference is weaker than usual this season, but Denver is not in a position right now where they can throw away games in which they have a fair shot to win.
LATEST NBA NEWS: Denver Nuggets In Desperate Need Of Someone To Step Up Around Jokic
Oklahoma City played a great game and controlled the pace of play from the opening tip, but it is hard to make an argument that a bench group consisting of guys like Vlatko Cancar, Davon Reed, Facundo Campazzo and others puts the Nuggets in a better position to win than the starting rotation containing Nikola Jokic, Will Barton, Aaron Gordon and others… even if the bench unit is hot and playing well at that moment.
Nine different players have been in the starting rotation for the Nuggets this season and due to their injuries, they are still trying to figure their rotations out. Games against the Thunder are ones this team needs to have if they are to make it back to the playoffs and getting zero sense of urgency from their starters is very concerning.
Maybe having five days off due to games being cancelled threw the Nuggets off last night, but they are definitely not trending in the right direction after this setback loss to the Thunder.
Six of their next ten games will be on the road and their schedule is not getting any easier. Denver will play the Warriors twice, Clippers twice, Mavericks and Jazz over their next ten games, all teams with winning records and playoff aspirations this season.
LATEST NBA NEWS: Denver Nuggets In Desperate Need Of Someone To Step Up Around Jokic
It is going to be very interesting to see how this team responds to Michael Malone’s “lesson” of benching his starters, but it was definitely very puzzling to see the Nuggets head coach go through with such a strategy, especially after they were in striking distance late in the game against Oklahoma City and had all the momentum on their side.
