Turnovers too much for Nuggets in loss

Jamal Murray fired a careless behindthe-back pass out of bounds, and Michael Malone had seen enough.

A disgusted Malone responded by calling timeout about midway through the third quarter, clearly fed up with another Nuggets turnover as he stormed alone across the court to the free-throw line.

Denver gave possession away 24 times against the Washington Wizards, ultimately dooming the Nuggets in a 109-104 loss Monday night at the Pepsi Center.

It was a night in which Denver outscored Washington 52-38 in the paint, won the rebounding edge 44-38 and got a bounce-back scoring performance from center Nikola Jokic (29 points, nine rebounds, five assists). And it was a game the Nuggets had several chances to tie, take the lead and win late.

“I scored, and we lost,” Jokic said. “So maybe it’s better for me to not score.”

The most important stat of the night was not Jokic’s 29 points but the Nuggets’ 24 turnovers.

“We’re losing games because of turnovers,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “We’re are 1-2 because of turnovers.”

Despite the sloppy play, Denver made a late push in the final minute.

Jokic hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key to cut Washington’s lead to 102-100, before John Wall responded with jumper. Then after Murray hit a jumper to again reduce the lead to two points, Beal hit a free throw after Jokic was called for a technical foul and then scored inside to increase the lead to 107-102 with 12 seconds left. Wall then iced the game with two free throws with 7.5 seconds to play.

“I’m sorry, because I put my team in a bad position,” Jokic said. “I tried to look at the score, and I hit the coach.”

“Nikola said he didn’t do it intentionally,” Malone said. “It was embellished a bit, to be honest. The referees looked at it,

and they called a tech.

“Let’s be honest — we didn’t lose the game because of that play. We lost the game because of 24 turnovers for 29 points. ”

Turnovers had been an emphasis throughout the preseason for a Nuggets offense spearheaded by young point guards Murray and Emmanuel Mudiay. But so far, it’s remained an issue. Denver entered Monday ranked 27th in the NBA with 19 turnovers per game, then ran into a Wizards team that swiped 10 steals per game to rank fourth in the league.

Those giveaways that the Wizards turned into 29 points were a big reason Denver surrendered an eight-point second-quarter lead, with Washington taking advantage of nine turnovers to finish the period on a 24-15 spurt to take a 56-55 lead on a tough layup at the buzzer by Bradley Beal.

Then turnovers seemingly squashed several key opportunities for Denver to retake the advantage in the second half.

“A lot of those (turnovers) were self-inflicted,” Malone said. “We’re getting ready to go on a four-game East Coast trip, and we cannot bring those turnovers with us.”

“If you’re going to make a turnover, just make an aggressive turnover,” Jokic said. “I have nothing against aggressive turnovers.”

With a chance to tie the game at 68 with about four minutes remaining in the third quarter, Millsap lost control of the ball and sent speedster John Wall into transition before Beal tipped in Wall’s miss at the rim. With a chance to take the lead, Tim Frazier swiped Mudiay at midcourt before finishing at the other end. And when Denver had a fast-break opportunity down 76-75 after Mason Plumlee corralled his own steal, the ball trickled out of bounds.