The Nuggets are just three games into the season and coach Michael Malone has unloaded some ugly terms to describe their offense.
Soft. Lethargic. Passive.
On Monday night, the visiting Cleveland Cavaliers left Ball Arena with an easy 99-87 victory — Denver’s first loss of a young season — and one Malone descriptor resonated above the rest: Concerned.
“They came in here and beat our (butt),” Malone said. “Yeah, I’m concerned about the offense.”
The most alarming Nuggets statistic is total turnovers — a whopping 60 over three games — due to poor decision making, scarce effort and a bevy of offensive fouls. Denver turned the ball over 22 times against Cleveland. Reigning MVP Nikola Jokic accounted for six of those giveaways.
The Cavs feasted with 32 points off turnovers for nearly a third of their overall scoring production.
“We’re going to lose a lot of games if we continue to play like this,” Jokic said. “It’s pretty much everything.”
The Nuggets’ starting unit played their best basketball over a late stretch of the third on Monday. Jokic went off en route to 24 points and 19 rebounds to tie the game, 70-70, with 40 seconds left in the quarter. Rookie Bones Hyland also scored his first NBA buckets with five points over a quick seven minutes off the bench in the first half. But Denver’s offense, especially with starters resting, never sustained momentum.
“Our execution I think has been really bad,” Malone said. “The (number) of plays that we did not execute out of a timeout. Guys in the wrong spot and not doing their respective job. It kind of shows me that guys aren’t really locked in and focused. I felt that we were just really passive on offense.”
Malone’s tough love continued: “We were soft offensively. We were coming down and shooting pull-up threes. I know they had great size out there and length. … But we never thought ‘attack.’ We thought ‘settle’ all night long.”
Starting small forward Will Barton accepted some of the blame for the team’s latest offensive miscues.
“I’ve got to do a better job of getting the ball, attacking and being the action, especially with (Jamal Murray) out right now,” Barton said. “I’ve got to take on more responsibility.”
It’s important to keep one result in perspective over an 82-game regular season. The Nuggets stumbled out to a 1-4 start a year ago before righting the ship to a No. 3 seed in the Western Conference playoffs. There is ample time to improve.
It starts Tuesday night at the Utah Jazz on the second night of back-to-back games.
“It’s not just that we lost. But how we lost,” Malone said. “Hopefully, that stings our guys and allows them to come out with a much greater sense of purpose and urgency.”
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