Players must solve “identity crisis” after loss to Cleveland Cavaliers.
Saturday’s loss to the Cavaliers left Nuggets coach Michael Malone, along with several of his players, asking a poignant, pressing question.
“Who are we?” Malone pondered after his team was shredded in transition. “And who are we going to be? That’s a decision that we have to really think long and hard about and make that decision, because we are not playing as well as we’re capable of, and that’s kind of scary for it to be this time of the season.”
Malone bemoaned his team’s inconsistency in their 104-102 loss, which dropped their record to 42-21. They allowed 35 points to the Cavs in the second quarter and then limited them to just 19 in the fourth. Two nights after turning the ball over just 12 times in Charlotte, a mark that was deemed incremental progress, their 18 turnovers led directly to 21 Cavs points.
With Denver zooming out from Saturday’s loss, which sealed a season sweep by Cleveland, the Nuggets’ defense has been a beacon of inconsistency. In the 55 games before the allstar break, they owned the 10thbest defense in the NBA. In the eight games since, they’re 25th in the entire league.
“We’re just inconsistent, as a team, period,” Nuggets veteran Will Barton said. “Inconsistent. Moments where we look real good, moments where we look real bad, moments we defend, moments we don’t defend, moments we talk, moments we don’t talk.”
The defensive lapses resulted in a career-high 14 assists from Cavs point guard Matthew Dellavedova, 27 points from Kevin Love and 25 points from Collin Sexton. All those gaudy numbers boiled down to defense. Either an inability to contain Sexton’s drives, a lost man on the 3-point arc or a blown coverage in transition.
Late in the third quarter, Dellavedova gave the Nuggets a glaring highlight they’ll rewatch on loop ahead of Monday’s game against the Bucks. He took one dribble past halfcourt and threw a deep alley-oop lob to Alfonzo McKinnie. The transition defense was so bad that the oop could’ve been thrown to Larry
Nance Jr. and it would’ve resulted in the same highlight. Malone bolted off the bench looking for a timeout while Monte Morris and Jerami Grant looked at each other, arms raised in confusion.
“Some of the transition defensive baskets that we allow are just so egregious in nature, just jogging back, lob dunk,” Malone said. “Sprinting back, but you don’t talk, give up a wide-open 3. … You have to participate in your own recovery. We have to want to go out there and do it.”
And then Malone admitted what’s been obvious since midFebruary.
“(A) team kind of trying to find themselves,” he concluded, speaking to the Nuggets’ 4-4 record since the break.
Jamal Murray’s missed shot at the buzzer could’ve sent the game to overtime, but it would’ve been a Band-Aid, an easy cover for a team trying to regain trust on defense.
“We’re just thinking that our talent is going to get us through that,” Murray said. “And teams are playing harder than us. … We’ve got to find our identity on defense.”