Abandoned by their reliable offense, infiltrated in their home by Boston sports fans as they so often are, the Nuggets had to bounce back the hard way.
With defense. Rebounding. Discipline, elbow grease, etc.
“Usually, maybe we win with the offense,” Nikola Jokic said, “but today we won with the defense.”
And when that happens, it’s a point of pride. The Nuggets know they can score. They’re not known for their rock fights. They did what they had to do Wednesday for a rewarding 103-84 victory over the Celtics, who came into Ball Arena with nine wins in their last 10 games. Despite shooting 42% from the field and 35% from the 3-point line, Denver kept an opponent out of triple digits for only the third time this season. Boston’s 84 points were the fewest the Nuggets have allowed.
“We have gotten to this point with our win total because of our offense. That’s the bottom line,” coach David Adelman said, putting a finer point on Jokic’s comment. “But for us to do anything uniquely special this season, our defense has to come along.”
The Nuggets (37-22) outscored their visitors 42-28 in the paint, 23-9 on second-chance points and 14-6 on fast breaks. Nikola Jokic led them with 30 strenuous points, 12 rebounds and six assists. Tim Hardaway Jr. added 14 off the bench. The heroes were Bruce Brown for his relentless ball pressure, Spencer Jones for his pesky physicality and Cam Johnson for his heady defensive impact as much as Jokic for his typical box score theatrics.
Torched by the Warriors from 3-point range last Sunday, Denver limited the trigger-happy Celtics to a 12-for-43 clip downtown. Nikola Vucevic — another veteran pick-and-pop big man like Golden State’s Al Horford — didn’t knock down a 3-pointer all night.
“Took away the corners,” Adelman said. “Made them drive it back into the defense. The full rotation to Vucevic was really good. Just (happy with) some things that I thought in Golden State, we talked about doing and didn’t do well enough.”
Boston’s primary scorer was neutralized as well. Jaylen Brown has elevated his offense to — in the opinion of LeBron James, at least — an MVP level this season with running mate Jayson Tatum rehabbing from a torn Achilles tendon. Brown was held to 23 points on 21 field goal attempts in Denver, committing four turnovers against higher pickup points than Denver usually applies. Bruce Brown grilled him the most, pick-pocketing the star wing a handful of times.
“He’s a game-breaker,” said Julian Strawther, who scored 12 points in another start. “Get a couple steals. Get the crowd engaged. Get everybody going. Once he does it, everybody on the team wants to get involved, too.”
“The whole film session with Golden State was, they were starting their offense wherever the hell they wanted to start it,” Adelman said. “It was guys dribbling to the elbow without being touched into dribble handoffs. It just wasn’t good enough. … In our league right now, that’s the area where you can get physical. You have to toe the line a little bit. And then obviously discipline comes into play when they attack the basket.”
Before Wednesday, the Nuggets had held 17 of their opponents to fewer than 110 points. Only four of those teams have winning records, including Toronto (the NBA’s 18th-ranked offense) and Golden State (14th).
This was perhaps their most worthy defensive performance of the year against a serious team. Boston touts the second-best offensive rating in the league, behind Denver’s. It was the second night of a back-to-back for the Celtics after they played Tuesday in Phoenix, but Jaylen Brown had sat that game out.
“In the third quarter, we fouled them four times in two minutes, and then we kind of set the tone for the rest of the game,” said Jokic, whose most recent crusade has been for the Nuggets to foul more often.
“When we play like that,” Bruce Brown said, “we’re the best in the league.”
Jamal Murray was feeling under the weather when he arrived for work Wednesday, but he decided to try playing through it. He didn’t last long. After logging eight minutes, he went to the locker room and didn’t return. The Nuggets officially ruled him out at halftime, after attempting to treat the point guard with “all the medication,” according to Adelman.
“All kinds of bodily things were happening,” the first-year head coach said.
Jalen Pickett was out due to right knee soreness. The availability of both point guards is unknown going into Friday’s showdown in Oklahoma City.
In the meantime, Adelman had to get creative, extending his rotation to account for Murray’s illness and Jones’ foul trouble after he picked up his third in nine minutes. Zeke Nnaji filled in for a stint at power forward. KJ Simpson played his first meaningful minutes since joining the team on a two-way contract last week. His fast-break flush late in the third quarter capped an 11-0 Nuggets run and sent them to the fourth with a 77-67 lead, the first double-digit margin of the night.
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“KJ didn’t show up here thinking he was going to play,” Adelman said. “He warmed up, it seemed like, four hours before the game. That’s his warm-up time. So he’s been sitting around here not doing anything. And then Jamal gets sick. He’s out. I felt like it was appropriate to let him play in the first half out of fairness, so gave him a few minutes there. And I personally thought he looked comfortable.”
When Jokic was in the game, his “inat” — a Serbian term for stubbornness — was on full display at the top of the arc. It paid off eventually. He was the epicenter of Denver’s collective dry spell, but he refused to stop launching as his right wrist and soft touch betrayed him. He was off to a 2-for-11 start from 3-point range when he buried one for the lead late in the third quarter. His next attempt three minutes later was silky, contributing to the Nuggets’ knockout blow of a run.
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