**ESPN:** [recap](https://www.espn.com/nba/recap/_/gameId/401468499) – [boxscore](https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401468499) – [gamecast](https://www.espn.com/nba/game/_/gameId/401468499) | **NBA.com:** [boxscore](https://www.nba.com/game/0022200344) – [shotchart](https://www.nba.com/game/0022200344/game-charts)
||**Q1**|**Q2**|**Q3**|**Q4**|**Final**||
|:—|:–:|:–:|:–:|:–:|:–:|:–:|
**DEN**|**31**|**29**|**21**|**25**|**106**|[](/DEN)|
**NOP**|**27**|**32**|**28**|**34**|**121**|[](/NOP)|
**Team**|**FG**|**3PT**|**FT**|**OR**|**Reb**|**Ast**|**TO**|**Stl**|**Blk**|**PF**|**Pts**|
|:—|—:|—:|—:|—:|—:|—:|—:|—:|—:|—:|—:|
[](/DEN)**DEN**|**41-81 (50.6)**|**8-31 (25.8)**|**16-24 (66.7)**|**9**|**43**|**22**|**19**|**5**|**5**|**22**|**106**|
[](/NOP)**NOP**|**41-81 (50.6)**|**11-26 (42.3)**|**28-36 (77.8)**|**6**|**36**|**29**|**10**|**10**|**5**|**22**|**121**|
**[](/DEN)DEN**|**Min**|**FG**|**3PT**|**FT**|**OR**|**Reb**|**Ast**|**TO**|**Stl**|**Blk**|**PF**|**Pts**|**+/-**|
|:—|—:|—:|—:|—:|—:|—:|—:|—:|—:|—:|—:|—:|—:|
B. Brown^^SF|37:39|6-9 (66.7)|1-3 (33.3)|0-0 (0.0)|0|6|3|4|1|0|4|13|-10|
A. Gordon^^PF|37:02|7-10 (70.0)|1-3 (33.3)|4-4 (100.0)|1|8|0|1|0|0|3|19|-7|
N. Jokic^^C|37:17|13-19 (68.4)|1-4 (25.0)|5-9 (55.6)|4|16|8|4|2|1|4|32|+2|
K. Caldwell-Pope^^SG|30:31|2-8 (25.0)|0-4 (0.0)|2-2 (100.0)|1|1|1|2|1|0|1|6|+2|
J. Murray^^PG|32:38|6-17 (35.3)|3-8 (37.5)|3-4 (75.0)|0|4|5|3|0|2|2|18|-7|
V. Cancar|14:53|0-4 (0.0)|0-3 (0.0)|0-0 (0.0)|1|2|0|0|1|0|3|0|-10|
B. Hyland|5:00|0-2 (0.0)|0-2 (0.0)|0-1 (0.0)|0|0|1|0|0|0|0|0|-14|
D. Reed|12:48|1-2 (50.0)|1-1 (100.0)|0-0 (0.0)|1|1|0|0|0|0|1|3|-17|
D. Jordan|8:40|2-2 (100.0)|0-0 (0.0)|1-2 (50.0)|1|2|0|1|0|0|1|5|-19|
I. Smith|17:23|3-6 (50.0)|1-2 (50.0)|1-2 (50.0)|0|1|3|4|0|1|3|8|-1|
C. Braun|2:03|0-0 (0.0)|0-0 (0.0)|0-0 (0.0)|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|+2|
J. White|2:03|1-1 (100.0)|0-0 (0.0)|0-0 (0.0)|0|1|0|0|0|0|0|2|+2|
Z. Nnaji|2:03|0-1 (0.0)|0-1 (0.0)|0-0 (0.0)|0|1|1|0|0|1|0|0|+2|
**Totals**||**41-81 (50.6)**|**8-31 (25.8)**|**16-24 (66.7)**|**9**|**43**|**22**|**19**|**5**|**5**|**22**|**106**||
**DNP:**
**Inactive:** ***Collin Gillespie***, ***Jeff Green***, ***Michael Porter Jr.***, ***Peyton Watson***
**[](/NOP)NOP**|**Min**|**FG**|**3PT**|**FT**|**OR**|**Reb**|**Ast**|**TO**|**Stl**|**Blk**|**PF**|**Pts**|**+/-**|
|:—|—:|—:|—:|—:|—:|—:|—:|—:|—:|—:|—:|—:|—:|
T. Murphy III^^SF|29:20|4-8 (50.0)|1-3 (33.3)|3-3 (100.0)|0|3|2|0|3|0|4|12|-4|
Z. Williamson^^PF|35:55|9-17 (52.9)|0-0 (0.0)|7-11 (63.6)|1|6|4|4|0|1|0|25|+11|
J. Valanciunas^^C|13:45|6-9 (66.7)|0-2 (0.0)|1-1 (100.0)|0|2|1|1|0|1|5|13|-21|
C. McCollum^^SG|33:49|3-11 (27.3)|0-2 (0.0)|1-1 (100.0)|0|3|6|1|0|0|1|7|0|
D. Daniels^^PG|21:20|1-3 (33.3)|0-0 (0.0)|0-0 (0.0)|0|2|0|0|1|0|0|2|-5|
D. Graham|13:45|1-4 (25.0)|1-4 (25.0)|2-2 (100.0)|2|3|5|1|1|0|1|5|+14|
N. Marshall|23:57|1-4 (25.0)|1-3 (33.3)|0-0 (0.0)|0|3|6|0|2|1|1|3|+23|
L. Nance Jr.|20:28|2-3 (66.7)|0-1 (0.0)|0-1 (0.0)|0|3|0|1|1|1|4|4|+17|
J. Alvarado|26:53|12-19 (63.2)|8-11 (72.7)|6-7 (85.7)|0|3|2|0|1|0|3|38|+21|
W. Hernangomez|19:47|2-3 (66.7)|0-0 (0.0)|8-10 (80.0)|3|8|3|2|1|1|3|12|+20|
G. Temple|0:58|0-0 (0.0)|0-0 (0.0)|0-0 (0.0)|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|-1|
**Totals**||**41-81 (50.6)**|**11-26 (42.3)**|**28-36 (77.8)**|**6**|**36**|**29**|**10**|**10**|**5**|**22**|**121**||
**DNP:** ***Jaxson Hayes***
**Inactive:** ***Brandon Ingram***, ***Herbert Jones***, ***Kira Lewis Jr.***, ***E.J. Liddell***, ***Dereon Seabron***
||**PITP**|**2^^nd PTS**|**FB PTS**|**BIG LD**|**BEN PTS**|**TOT TOV**|**TOV PTS**||
|:—|:–:|:–:|:–:|:–:|:–:|:–:|:–:|:–:|
**DEN**|58|15|14|14|18|19|11|[](/DEN)|
**NOP**|54|4|11|18|62|11|18|[](/NOP)|
**Lead Changes: 12** | **Times Tied: 2** | **Gametime: 2:19** | **Attendance: 15658**
*Officials: Matt Boland, Sean Wright, Natalie Sago*
by BigHoneyBot
36 Comments
Zion is very good. AG did well on him defensively and is probably one of the very few guys in the NBA with the body to even bother Zion.
Anyone have any idea why Murray can’t go straight up and down on a jumper? He’s always twisting even wide open and it just does not look good at all. Hell, in general Jamal does not look good physically. Very little burst, can’t elevate quickly for a jumper off the dribble, moving in molasses around screens trying these ridiculous big side step plants off his right leg it’s just a bucket every single time for the other team.
Being patient with Jamal because I know how good he can be and that he loves basketball but I would not be surprised at all if we hear soon that Murray needs another operation to clean up his knee or something like that.
Malone needs some sort of explanation for this, what kind of bench management was that tonight? Why leave Cancar and Reed out there, bench Bones after 5 minutes? Malone wasting this team again…
Gotta trade the vets away to get the young guys some run
I’m a neutral fan but watched the nuggets coverage tonight and your guys commentators were really good, lot of teams’ commentary is usually biased but yours was really good
Would you rather have
AG with Vince Carter level dunks and athleticism
Or
Jok with CP3s basketball Intel
Malone’s overreliance on players to do there “jobs” has really shown this year. Instead of having a clear offensive and defensive system he expects playmakers to playmake, scorers to score, defenders to defend, which is very rudimentary coaching. You see that in the offense when Jokic isn’t on the court and especially when Jamal is struggling like he has this year. Our backuo guards are decent playmakers but you shouldn’t rely on them there should be a system in place to make things easier. On the defensive end well theres no better example than against the hawks when Dejountay killed us in the SAME P&R drop coverage that killed us in the Suns series. Malone needs to go. Only other way I see it working is if we get players to “rely” on aka make Malones iob easier.
Malone is a terrorist and he will pay for his crimes.
So many original comments in here. Word of the day is Malone! see ya in daily tomorrow. The doomers have came up from the sewers, not worth my time! ✌🏻
How dare the Nuggets lose to the team we were tied at 2nd seed with!! They didn’t even have BI or Herb, apparently we were completely healthy and we just DNP Jeff Green and MPJ for no reason!
We lost this game for ourselves, and it’s only on us, but I would like to add Natalie Sago called a shitty game. Both sides, missed and dumb calls.
Biggest copium on this sub is that Murray is only warming up. This is literally the same Murray as always (literally same career stats). Some great shooting nights, then duds right after.
I like DJ he’s clearly not as bad as people were saying in the start. But he’s absolutely unplayable in certain matchups, zeke atleast has to play those games.
No Christian is indefensible. I expect Malone to give them chances next game. Or fuck him
I don’t think some of you guys realize that good coaches don’t just spawn out of nowhere. If we fired Malone for some random dude there’s a really good chance he would be like five times worse and you guys would be dying for Malone to come back
Can someone smarter than me break down the defensive schemes and where they’re failing? This shouldn’t be a roster issue, with KCP and Brown, and I also don’t think Braun magically solves it. I’m just confused as to how they’re playing worse defense with an objectively better defensive roster.
Malone is not a bad coach but he’s definitely been overrated in the past few years. Got out coached by Snyder in the bubble if not for Jamal turning literally into MJ. Jokic carrying the team on his back the past 2 years. He’s always complained about the defense but we bring in 3 additional defenders and our defense is even worse. At some point, enough with the excuses and we have to capitalize on this 2-3 year window that we have with a prime Jokic.
We were great until Jordan came in and in just 4 minutes – 13. FO needs to save Malone and put Jordan away. Yes, Murray was bad, the whole team very bad for 3 etc but Jordan is a huge problem for Denver because he can literally do almost nothing, everything falls apart with him. It is unreal that Malone doesn’t try with kid Braun to stop that little thief. At least try it man, if something doesn’t work– try something else, why stick with Ish and Reed when we have 2 young players good defenders in Zeke and Braun. AT LEAST TRY SOMETHING ELSE
Also i guess we underrated how much is important super long hands from Porter
Imagine thinking you know how to coach an NBA team and simply changing rotations will fix every problem.
I’ll say it again.
Jokić needs Damian Lillard.
I’m going to watch not because I think we’re contenders (it is our year for something special). I’ll watch to enjoy the bois (Jokic, Murray, AG, Porter, Bruce). This way I’ll be less disappointed
Free Zeke
Malone is a misogynist https://twitter.com/NuggetsNationCP/status/1599538803848404994
Can we fire him now?
Just trade Nnaji if you’re not going to use him. What’s the point.
Once MPJ comes back, the bench issues should clear up a bit, offensively at least. Malone finally had his stagger figured out with MPJ, and him getting hurt threw a wrench in his plan, and he sucks at adjusting. Hope MPJ comes back soon, and more Zeke and CB minutes PLEASE.
PUBLICLY EXECUTE MALONE WHILE HIS CHILDREN WATCH
Man did Malone really just hint no rotation changes to the bench
Willie Green, coaching Pels for only two years
Michael Malone, coaching Nuggets for 6-7 years..
Hmmmm…
Mark your calendar boys, January 15th. Nuggets vs Magic. Bol Bol has it marked. He’s going to feast. He’s going to drop a career high 30+ pts on Malone’s dumbass
[https://twitter.com/BizzyBones11/status/1599547059970809857](https://twitter.com/BizzyBones11/status/1599547059970809857)
I haven’t been a fire maloner for a while, starting to dabble. Haven’t lost all hope for him tho. I do wonder, for the people still totally sold on him, is there anything he can do that will make you question him? Lol
If we don’t get to the finals I want Malone gone. Too much talent for this.
Honesty it’s like we don’t want to win.
I missed todays game. Did something happen with bones? He’s being weird on Twitter
Yo can KCP do anything? He’s been practically useless the last five games.
Last year we were 15th in defense
Calvin gets more defensive help for Jokic.
We get worse on defense. 25th in the league.
What the hell happened?
https://preview.redd.it/fkmfgxn9e04a1.jpeg?width=1095&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=894e8e5c84e02ff2f34aa9ae134caf4617e2386f
Really wish some reporters would ask the hard questions 1) why Jordan over Zeke? 2) why ish and reed over Braun.