With the score tied and less than a minute to go Monday night in Oklahoma City, coach Michael Malone called the same play that, three nights earlier, had helped push the Nuggets to overtime against New Orleans when Mason Plumlee followed a missed Trey Lyles 3-pointer with a dunk.
But an outsider would not have recognized the offensive similarities against the Thunder, because the Nuggets were so out of sorts due to a “breakdown.”
Malone declined to reveal details on what exactly went haywire before Jamal Murray misfired on a deep 3-pointer late in the shot clock. But the possession in an eventual 95-94 loss served as a key example of how Denver failed down the stretch in a tight contest, perhaps the most recent reminder of the youth and inexperience that still peppers the Nuggets’ roster.
Still, Malone called Monday’s loss the first time in 30 games he felt his squad lacked poise late.
“If I had to kind of clarify or assign why we didn’t have it (Monday night),” Malone said, “I would just say the mental toughness and discipline to execute under pressure in a hostile environment … that was the one time this year where I really felt that we didn’t have the execution that we needed.”
The raw numbers paint a more mixed picture. Denver is 6-5 in “clutch games,” which the NBA defines as teams within five points or fewer of each other with five minutes to play.
There are multiple examples over the past month. Will Barton scored 11 points in overtime to finish off that win against New Orleans, and converted a game-winning reverse layup to squeak past Chicago on Nov. 30. The Nuggets collapsed at Indiana on Dec. 10, allowing 20 unanswered points in regulation and overtime of a 126-116 loss that Malone primarily attributed to exhaustion in the midst of a six-game road trip. Denver admirably hung with Boston in a 124-118 defeat three days later, the second night of a back-to-back set played without Barton and center Nikola Jokic.
Those followed a Nov. 9 home win against the Thunder in which the Nuggets pulled away 102-94 in what was viewed then as a watershed victory. And a 95-94 home win over Miami on Nov. 3, when Paul Millsap sank three free throws to clinch the victory. And a 109-104 loss to Washington on Oct. 23, a contest primarily remembered for Jokic’s bump of Wizards coach Scott Brooks (and the ensuing technical foul) but that also included Denver’s season-high 23 turnovers.
Malone highlighted the intangibles needed to perform in crunch time. But that’s also an area in which the Nuggets miss the injured Millsap, the 12-year veteran all-star who can be a calming go-to presence during an offensive set gone awry or notify teammates they need to foul early in the shot clock on the ensuing defensive possession. Jokic’s overlapping absence put Barton in the “closer” role, which he successfully filled twice but drew a postgame public critique from Malone when he pulled up for a jumper instead of driving to the basket late in regulation against the Pacers.
Though Malone showed frustration with Monday’s late blunders against the Thunder, he viewed it as a learning opportunity for Denver’s maturing core. And for himself, as the coach acknowledged, he should have called Lyles off before he fouled Oklahoma City’s Jerami Grant with too many seconds already erased from the game clock for Denver to get a chance at an extra offensive possession.
“For that to be one time in 30 games,” Malone said, “I think for a young team (with) as many injuries as we’ve had, it’s pretty good.”
