Denver Nuggets
The Denver Nuggets have had a knack on the second night of back to backs going 12-1 last season. They were hoping to continue in the vein against the Dallas Mavericks.
They started out strong going on a 15-5 run to start the game lead by Paul Millsap who had 10 of those 15 points. I loved Scott Hastings’ use of the term “Millsappian things” to describe his play. I mean, that needs to be a hashtag. Am I right? For the first time this season, the Nuggets went into halftime with a lead on the back of Millsap’s 14-point performance in which he shot 3-5 from long range.
It was a back and forth game with neither team getting to a place where they had a really commanding lead. In the closing seconds, down by three points, and a chance to force overtime. The ball got into Jamal Murray‘s hands but the offense was stagnant. There was no movement off the ball and Murray was forced to take a difficult shot over a bigger player and that was that.
Something most of us already knew is that Nikola Jokic is an incredible passer. Something I learned in this game is that big man Mason Plumlee also has pretty good ability to drop dimes. What a luxury for a team to have not just one but two big men who are great passers. As a team, they had 29 assists in the game.
A stat that stands out to me for all the wrong reasons is the 10 missed free throws. That many shots missed from the charity stripe is just too many in any situation. In a game decided by just three points… you have to assume that’s was a talking point after the game.