“Nikola Jokic is nothing without Jamal Murray”- ESPN breaks down Nuggets lose to Timberwolves 111-98

“Nikola Jokic is nothing without Jamal Murray”- ESPN breaks down Nuggets lose to Timberwolves 111-98

Report Christopher Dempsey alongside Bill hansik and uh h i mean there’s there’s there’s not a lot of positives here um what plagued the nuggets the most in this loss well yeah I’ll go back I said off to open it I I thought yeah you struggled some offensive but that

Should not affect your defensive game 62 points in the first half for Minnesota 30 of those points in the pain easy layups and push backs they needed more ball pressure well the second half they got that but a little too late held Minnesota to just 49 points on 13 of 30

Shooting that’s good enough to win a game but you got to have two halves like that all right let’s take a look at the standings because a lot changed here uh tonight after uh after this game this is the health health One Standings uh the vinota Timberwolves are now in first

Place they own the tiebreaker over Oklahoma City the Nuggets checking in in third the Nuggets will not have the tiebreaker over Oklahoma City or Minnesota so hands they going they are going to have to finish with a better than both of those teams in order to

Finish in first place yeah I mean it it it’s still it’s a three team Race the Nuggets schedule is you know they got a lot of winnable games they need Jamal back and it looked to me early on too that Joker’s right wrist he had it taped up again and that’s that that’s

Bothering him a little bit and you can see Miss some easy shots that he normally makes well a guy that was not missing many shots was Mike connley uh he was really just brilliant to 23 points ties for his uh the second highest point total of the Season he’s

Only scored more than 20 points in a game four times the entire year and this is one of them well he got that feeling he got it going and uh you know he delivered dimes he had eight of those but five out of six at one point he was

Five for five on three point shots and uh boy he was just big particularly that third quarter he had a three threes in a row and uh nuggets didn’t have an answer for him and you know J’s on the season he averages 11 a game you go 23 well

He’s pretty good maybe he averages 18 n no he averages 11 yeah so big night for him yeah no doubt about that and he was really hot from the three-point line he was hot from everywhere but especially the three-point line uh this is our star downtown uh breakdown Mike Conley five

For six from the three-point line all of them on the left side of the Court he’s a lefty he likes going there they they have they run a pretty good system where it’s it’s tough that you almost need to trap him even though the Big’s way out

High and the Nuggets were trying to force him Baseline but he’d just come back over top and create open open looks for himself yeah he’s a look when they brought him over along with Rudy goar they were looking for a little veteran presence uh the kind of guy that can hit

Shots and hostile environments uh he was able to do that here tonight for the Minnesota Tiber wolves all right let’s take a break uh we um not ready to play we weren’t physical we weren’t aggressive um yeah that that first half you know we deserve to be booted off the court to be

Quite honest um you know and I challenge that guys at halftime because that first half was unacceptable across the board you know and and that’s my job as a head coach to start with me getting guys ready to play um making sure they understand what’s at stake and you can

Tell them about it but still you know if your players don’t perform that that’s starts with me first and foremost and then our players obviously uh in the first have not even close to the necessary level of energy physicality urgency that you need against a very

Good team a team that’s been in first place most of the year and uh you know challenged him at halftime and uh they came out like grown ass men and you know we played a second half like we cared and uh you know never really got back in

The game you know uh it may have appeared that but at least we played hard at least we defended at least we hit somebody I’ll give you the one stat that kind of tells that sums up first half and second half how many turnovers do they have in the first half you know

What that means they didn’t feel us at all not at all second half nine turnovers 10 points for us so um you just can’t show up you know and as I remind you there guys this is not last year we do not have a cushion to hey we

Can take a game we can rest guys like we’re in a dog fight we’re in a dog fight and obviously Jamal being out that’s not ideal but we have to get him healthy and um I can live like you know what Reggie Jackson was 4 or5 tonight

Reggie left it all out there I I was really impressed that him Christian Brown went two for 10 tonight loved how he played so we struggle to make shots but when you struggle to make shots as we all know then everything else has to be great has to be elite in the first

Half you know we didn’t make shots we didn’t guard we did nothing is that disappointing that you didn’t see the effort immediately with you know what’s at stake like you said the seating like you guys are in a battle for you know the number one seed with a what do you think

Harrison yes were you disappointed as a fan absolutely exactly I mean that’s why I said I mean the fans had every right to be disappointed with that first half it’s you know again going into this game We’re Half game up in first place and uh you know the only chance we

Have of winning uh the tiebreaker against Minnesota is to beat them 3 to one because we’re not going to catch them and the conference wins just not so you know you let a golden opportunity slip through your hands and it’s one thing if a team comes in here and beat

You I think we can all walk at her and say you know what they were better than us tonight you know but tonight I don’t think that was the case I felt uh yes so to answer your question yeah it was disappointing and I I hope that when you

Speak to our players I think they’ll be hopefully equally as disappointed and it doesn’t get any easier you know we got Cleveland coming in here on Sunday so we’ve lost two in a row and uh you know we’ll see what we’re made of was Nicole’s risk bothering him at all oh he

I was surprised he played tonight to be quite honest yeah his uh his wrist is really giving him a lot of trouble and you know that you know as we know you know Nicole is a guy that plays through a lot of things that most guys wouldn’t

Play through um so yes to answer your question his wrist was bothering him tonight you guys have pried yourselves on playing through a lot in tough situations we’ve had a lot of scheduled spots this year but with the AL does alchem tonight change anything about how you’re going to approach the final eight

Games of the Season uh I don’t think so I mean like uh right now obviously uh I have to make sure that I take my blinders off once in a while because I get in that Foxhole and I’m thinking about Cleveland right now um you know

But sometimes you have to come up for air and think that we have eight games to go and like I was just talking with Jamal and like he apologized to me I said don’t don’t apologize man you’re not trying to be hurt and your health is

More important than a win right now uh cuz as I’ve said many times to you guys I have complete confidence that I group regardless of seed can beat anybody anywhere when we’re healthy because we’ve done it um so but I I’ll have to think about that when Matt about kind of

Where it at but I I just want to win I want to get back to playing 48 minutes of Denver Nugget basketball so we can walk out of here feeling really good about ourselves playing the right way and you think about it I think we’re 15 and four now since the break overall

It’s been phenomenal phenomenal like that’s incredible to do you know but I just hate losing two in a row like that that really bothers me what about their defense stood out in terms of holding you guys to 98 points and that beat the number one ring

Defense in that yeah I mean just their size their length um and obviously we really struggle to make shots we another night where we were two for n in transition opportunities uh Phoenix game we were 1 for seven so uh even when you think you have an an

Avenue to the rim there’s a Rudy goar there’s a Jaden McDaniels there’s um you know Nas Reed you got a great athlete in Edwards so there’s a reason they’re the number one defense in the NBA through 70 plus games and uh when you’re not getting stops you know you only have

Four transition points know since the break we’re averaging over 18 but if you can’t get a stop then it’s going to make it really hard to get out and run um so now you’re playing against a half court defense and their Elite in the half

Court so uh you a lot of things that we can clean up for sure one more on on nights like yeah I mean that as as executed an enemy has been defeated your tower has been destroyed an enemy has been defeated defeated Time to Kill you have our base Tower is under attack

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“Nikola Jokic is nothing without Jamal Murray” – ESPN breaks down Nuggets lose to Timberwolves 111-98