Barton, Malone see some hope despite streak reaching three
PHILADELPHIA» Nuggets wing Will Barton considered Friday night’s 117-110 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers a step in the right direction even if it extended Denver’s losing streak to three.
With two games remaining before the all-star break, Nuggets center Nikola Jokic didn’t sound ready to go that far.
“We can just have energy, run around, it’s not going to help us,” Jokic said after his 11th tripledouble of the season wasn’t enough. “I think we need to be focused. … If we have energy that doesn’t mean nothing.”
Jokic, who had 27 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists, was upset at Denver’s fourth-quarter defense, which short-circuited any shot the Nuggets had at stealing a game on the road and dropped their record to 37-18. The Sixers scored 34 points on 75 percent shooting from the field in the fourth. They also got to the freethrow line 16 times.
“You cannot win the game if they’re going to shoot like that,” Jokic said. “Especially, we missed a lot of open shots, you cannot miss shots and don’t play defense.”
Barton was highly critical of his team’s effort in Wednesday’s loss to Brooklyn but softened his tone after his team was competitive until the final few minutes Friday.
“Much better than the last two games,” Barton said. “We won’t be like ‘We didn’t play hard like the last two games.’ Good little step in the right direction.”
Nuggets coach Michael Malone simply wanted his team to fight as it had throughout almost every game before this week. After Wednesday’s loss to the Nets, Malone questioned his team’s professionalism and bemoaned that their effort was even up for debate.
But a 22-6 run to end the second quarter Friday showed evidence of the Nuggets’ resiliency, and their 35 assists confirmed their unselfishness. Four players – Jokic, Barton, Jamal Murray and Mason Plumlee reached doubledigits scoring and had at least five rebounds and six assists.
“We have to participate in our own recovery,” Malone said. “We can’t feel sorry for ourselves. Tonight was a much better version of the Denver Nuggets. I think we can walk out of here with our heads held high.”
If there’s one common denominator for Denver throughout the losing streak, it has been porous perimeter defense. The Pistons, Nets and Sixers combined to shoot 45-of-93 (48 percent) from 3-point range over the final three games of the road trip. On Friday, J.J. Redick torched the Nuggets with 6-of-7 shooting from beyond the arc. Addressing that should be Malone’s top priority heading into games against Miami and Sacramento before the break.
The loss dropped the Nuggets to just 1.5 games ahead of surging Oklahoma City, the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference.
They key to ending the Nuggets’ three-game slide?
“Just knowing what’s at stake,” Barton said. “It’s time to get back to business.”