Lack of sizehurt against Rockets
It wasn’t the lack of defense or scoring that hurt the Nuggets the most on Wednesday night against the Rockets; it was their lack of size.
Mason Plumlee, Paul Millsap and Michael Porter Jr. were all out due to various injuries, and the Rockets bombarded the Nuggets on the offensive glass. Houston had 18 offensive rebounds, including eight from Clint Capela and six from Russell Westbrook. There was no overcoming that number, which contributed to Houston’s plus-13 rebounding advantage.
It was that component — not Gary Harris’ individual defense or Jamal Murray’s scoring ability – that the Nuggets missed the most. Outside of that glaring number, here are other takeaways from Wednesday’s loss.
No bodies, no problem
Just because the Nuggets entered Wednesday night down three starters and five key players, no one on the team was willing to concede the game. Certainly not Monte Morris, who was elevated to starting point guard duties four games ago and took the loss harder than one might expect.
“It’s still frustrating,” Morris said. “When we left the locker room, we wanted to win. We aren’t just going out there feeling sorry for ourselves because we were down six guys, whatever the number is. … We want to win every single game. Yeah, leaving the locker room, we think we can beat them. We’ve shown we can beat them.”
There was no consolation prize for competing hard, though coach Michael Malone did credit his players for that.
Nikola’s voice growing
Earlier in the week, against Minnesota, knowing his team was depleted, Nikola Jokic said he tried be more engaged and serve as more of a vocal leader.
“I challenged him tonight, I said listen, ‘It’s going to be even more important tonight,” Malone said. “We have more guys out.’ Can you be a leader when things aren’t going well? Can you, kind of, be a guy that all these young guys can look to and be a source of comfort and confidence? Yes, he gets a triple-double, he plays extremely hard, but I’m more proud of the fact that we’re not allowing our circumstances to take away from our positive energy.”
Jokic again try to engage his teammates. During a timeout, when the game was slipping away, he addressed a group of reserves before they headed back into the game. When asked about the moment, he couldn’t quite remember what he said. But in the moment, it didn’t look like lip service.
Jokic is going to set the tone for however long Murray, Harris and Millsap remain out.
Swiss Army knife
Losing Plumlee (foot injury) might be the most difficult hole for the Nuggets to fill. Their glut of wings can temporarily make up for Harris and Porter’s injuries, but they simply don’t have a lot of options in the frontcourt.
That’s why Jerami Grant’s performance was so impressive. He clawed for rebounds, scrapped with James Harden on the perimeter, affected shots at the rim and generally used his length to his advantage.
He’s snatched seven rebounds each over the last two games, two of his biggest outputs of the season. The Nuggets need him to play big while they’re thin up front.
“Jerami, kind of a Swiss Army knife, he’s playing backup four, he’s playing backup five, he’s guarding Capela, he’s guarding Harden, he’s guarding Westbrook, and he’s rebounding,” Malone said. “We haven’t had many reps in practices where we can get him used to being a five, but he screens, he rolls, he’s on the rim, he’s really effective in that.”
They need his defensive rebounding more than ever heading into another game against the Pelicans on Friday night.