Denver defeats itself with 26 turnovers
SACRAMENTO, CALIF.» Within the first three minutes Saturday night at the Golden 1 Center, Wilson Chandler traveled, threw a bad pass inside and stepped out of bounds after corralling a defensive rebound.
Those three miscues foreshadowed what was to come for the Nuggets. Denver committed a season-high 26 turnovers for 40 points against the short-handed Kings, leading to arguably its worst loss of the season, 106-98.
Sacramento played without leading scorer Zach Randolph (oral surgery), as well as George Hill (personal reasons) and Frank Mason (heel contusion). Still, the 13-25 Kings forced Denver into error after error on its second night of a back-to-back set.
Yet the Nuggets still made a fourth-quarter push. After Vince Carter drilled a 3-pointer to give the Kings an 84-71 lead early in the fourth quarter, Denver answered with an 18-8 run, cutting the lead to 92-89 when Trey Lyles finished inside with 5:22 to play. But Willie Cauley-stein answered with two consecutive baskets and a Carter 3 later rolled around and in to put Sacramento up 101-92 with 2:25 to play.
The turnover total was a sharp step back for the Nuggets. They entered Saturday ranked 23rd in the NBA in that category (15.4 per game) and 27th in points off those miscues (18.8 per game), but had committed 13 or fewer in four of their previous five contests.
Chandler (five turnovers), Nikola Jokic (five), Jamal Murray (five) and Will Barton (four) gave the ball away the most for the Nuggets. And those turnovers came early, often and at crucial moments. Fifteen took place in the first half, when the Kings built a double-digit lead. On the first play of the second half, Cauley-stein took the ball from Murray and slammed home a breakaway dunk.
Kings rookie guard De’aaron Fox totaled 18 points and seven assists, while Cauley-stein finished with 17 points.
Lyles brought 19 points and nine rebounds off the bench for Denver. Murray totaled 18 points and five rebounds and Barton added 17 points and six assists.
Up next for Denver? A road date with the reigning champion Golden State Warriors, whom the Nuggets beat at Oracle Arena less than three weeks ago in arguably their best win of the season.
Saturday’s loss was largely due to their sloppiest ball handling.
“I’m not going to use (fatigue as an) excuse,” coach Michael Malone said. “If we use that as an excuse, it’s going to be a long season. It was just poor decisions, and we never got control of it.”