Denver 2-3 with Millsap back
Nuggets running out of time to jell with star forward who missed 44 games
Always subdued and selfdeprecating, Paul Millsap recently envisioned a future of standing in the corner while his teammates flowed around him in his return from wrist surgery.
“Hopefully I get in and I don’t mess it up,” the Nuggets forward said hours before his first game action in three months.
To say Millsap has derailed Denver’s season in his five games back would be a massive exaggeration. But the reintegration of the four-time all-star and splashy free-agent acquisition hasn’t been seamless. Denver is 2-3 in those games, following a 10-4 surge from Jan. 22 through Feb. 25. The offensive production has dipped, while the defense has remained poor. And with 17 regular-season games remaining in a tight playoff race that has the Nuggets on the outside, coach Michael Malone knows his team doesn’t have much time to figure it out.
“When a player of Paul Millsap’s magnitude misses 44 games and comes back with 22 games to go, that is a huge challenge,” Malone said. “Especially when the team was playing so well.”
In February, the Nuggets rode a high-powered offense that ranked second in the NBA in efficiency (115.7 points per 100 possessions) and made up for a defense that ranked dead last in the league
(116.8 points allowed per 100 possessions). But over the past five games, Denver’s offense has dipped to 10th (110.6 points per 100 possessions), while the defense has only slightly improved to 28th (112.5 points allowed per 100 possessions).
After trading offensive sets for a more free-wheeling style at the end of January, Malone acknowledged this week that he’s started calling more plays to get Millsap the ball where he’s most effective. The results have been clunky at times, with standout big man Nikola Jokic following a fantastic February with three consecutive singledigit scoring outputs providing the most glaring example. But after Jokic was benched in the fourth quarter of Tuesday’s loss in Dallas and had a conversation with Malone about becoming more aggressive, he responded with 36 points on 12of-14 shooting (and 10-of-11 from the free-throw line) to go with 13 rebounds and six assists in Wednesday’s loss to Cleveland.
“That’s the Nikola that we need,” Malone said, also reminding that it took Jokic and Millsap time to jell at the beginning of the season because of their natural inclination to facilitate from the high post.
The Nuggets’ defense, meanwhile, continues to sputter. They have allowed at least 102 points in 16 consecutive games. The coaching staff calculated that Denver gave up a season-high 25 uncontested shots Tuesday in Dallas. In the first quarter Wednesday, Cleveland went off for 38 points on 63.6 percent shooting, a span during which Malone felt his team lost the game.
Though Millsap has flashed active moments while blocking shots, making steals and maintaining stout position defense, Malone cautioned that the Nuggets can’t rely on one player to transform their performance on that end of the floor.
“(Millsap) needs the other four guys to buy in and give the same effort that he’s giving,” Malone said.
The sample size to measure Denver’s play in Millsap’s return is small. But so is the Nuggets’ sample size of games remaining. With other Western Conference playoff contenders streaking and the Nuggets entering Friday on the outside of the playoff picture, Malone knows his team must expedite the reintegration of its all-star power forward.
“We’re up against time now,” Malone said.