Mateo’s Hoop Diary: Turnovers and poor defense caused the Nuggets’ downfall against the Rockets

The undermanned Nuggets got pushed around at home by the Rockets. The latter took 19 extra shots as a result of forcing 18 turnovers plus recovering four more rebounds. And Jalen Green’s jumper was like a cannon with bottomless rounds. The Nuggets were without Nikola Jokić and Aaron Gordon.

“When you’re without your starting power forward and center against a team that sits no. 2 in the Western Conference, you got to play damn near perfect, and we were definitely far from that tonight,” coach Michael Malone said after the game.

The Nuggets shot well early. Jamal Murray made a pull-up triple and scored on a screen roll at the cup plus racked up four dimes. But their work was offset by committing seven turnovers thanks to Houston’s pressure. On defense, the team was slow to reach outside shooters.

The second quarter started with Denver down five points. Then the visitors seized control, intercepting the ball and stripping it. On the other side, the Rockets rattled off 41 points on 60% shooting.  Green caused most of the devastation, scoring on screen rolls, getting to the line, and blowing by Michael Porter Jr. for a shot in the lane. 

At halftime, the Nuggets were down 69-48. They had 12 turnovers to eight assists. Their mistakes were like a boxer continuously walking into an opponent’s traps. They were also being outscored in four key areas: paint points 24-22, fastbreak points 8-3, second chance points 9-8 and points off turnovers 17-5.

Subsequently, Russell Westbrook, Christian Braun, Porter and Murray started the third quarter making six of nine shots. Yet that only cut the deficit to 17, and Houston scored 13 points off five Denver turnovers. 

For the Rockets, Green buried three more jumpers and viciously dunked over Dario Šarić. And Alperen Şengün added 10 points on five of eight attempts. 

The fourth quarter started with the Nuggets down 102-81. Braun was the only starter to play, logging four-and-a-half minutes. Malone conceded when he dumped the bottom four of the bench- Hunter Tyson, Zeke Nnaji, Trey Alexander and Jalen Pickett- into the game.

The Nuggets lost 128-108. They were outscored in the four key areas: in the paint by 10, on the break by 18, on second chances by two, and by 26 off turnovers.

“When we turned it over, we didn’t hustle back, we didn’t make extra effort plays to try to limit their points off turnovers… but that second quarter was definitely where the game got away,” Malone said. 

Takeaways:

• Porter struggled to be a factor on both sides.

• Malone said he hadn’t gotten an update on Jokić’s right elbow inflammation. Jokić was warming up with a shooting sleeve before the game. 

• Braun’s strong night scoring- 22 points on 10 of 11 shots- didn’t make much of a dent because of all the turnovers and poor transition defense.  

• The Nuggets’ attack spent 84.6% of its time in the half-court, good enough for the 10th percentile, per Cleaning the Glass. 

• The Nuggets never led.