Denver Nuggets
There was never any question that this was going to be an exciting early-season matchup. For the Denver Nuggets, it turned out to be even more interesting than expected.
With 8:15 to play in the first quarter, Nikola Jokic had to be benched after picking up his third foul. I know Jokic is a special player but, this was just irresponsible on his part. Yes, it’s early in the season and there’s a lot more basketball to play. But as the centrepiece of Denver’s offence, it’s his responsibility to stay on the floor. To make matters worse, the fouls he picked up were just silly and unnecessary. The Joker indeed.
The good news is that Denver was able to manage the rest of the first half with Jokic sitting on the bench. Even without Jokic on the floor, they played some great team basketball. Jamal Murray, Mason Plumlee and Malik Beasley were able to get some great team ball going to lead the Nuggets on a 9-0 run with just under 3:00 to play in the quarter.
Something to make note of with the Nuggets is how deep they are. The bench outscored the starters by two points in the first half. It’s not often that you see all the starters from an NBA team on the bench at the same time but at the end of the third quarter that was the case for Denver.
When Jokic rejoined the game in the second half, he did what he does scoring 16 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter. He had 13 rebounds to complete the opening night double-double.
Denver also shot remarkably well from three-point range. In the first quarter, they had made only two field goals from inside the arc and had 6 from range. They went on to make 18 3’s in the win.