DALLAS — The season lows were sprinkled all over the stat sheet.
Team: 39 points in a half … 15 points in the third quarter (lowest in any quarter this season) … 35.7 percent shooting.
Individual: Ty Lawson, three points on 1-of-8 shooting.
The result of all of that and other ugly numbers was an equally hideous 102-84 loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday night at a sold-out American Airlines Center.
The Nuggets barely showed up for this one, going 2-of-10 to start, and when the deficit hit 20 points, succumbed to the tired legs and the daunting task of trying to rally against the defending NBA champions.
“There are a lot of areas that you could talk about,” Nuggets coach George Karl said. “But my disappointment was early in the game. I thought the game was saying that we had to defend aggressively to get some offense from our defense.”
But they never could.
Dallas put the Nuggets’ turnover-and-run game in quicksand, getting back in transition and making one of the NBA’s leading teams in points off turnovers play half-court basketball.
In the half court, the Mavericks walled off the lane. And when the Nuggets were able to get into the paint, the Mavericks simply knocked them around like bowling pins, choosing the physical/foul route instead of allowing Denver players to finish with layups and dunks and gain confidence.
The biggest effect was on Lawson, who was never allowed to get into space in the half court or get a consistent running game going in the open court. The Mavericks put defensive stalwart Shawn Marion on Lawson at times, and it worked.
“I saw him do similar things to Chris Paul,” Karl said. “They are using him all over the court in different ways, in different positions. I think he’s getting the first option of most teams’ offense, from a defensive standpoint and doing a great job of it.”
For the first time since the injuries started to hit, it was clear that the Nuggets missed the trio of Danilo Gallinari, Nene and Timofey Mozgov, a combined 36.1 points and 17.5 rebounds per game.
“They made shots,” Nuggets forward Al Harrington said. “And we struggled offensively.”
At halftime, the Nuggets had scored a season-low 39 points on 14-of-42 (33.3 percent) shooting from the field, 3-of-13 (23.1 percent) from the 3-point line and even 8-of-17 (47.1 percent) from the free-throw line. They committed nine turnovers that the Mavericks turned into 11 points.
The Mavericks led by as many as 16 points.
In the second half, that lead grew to as many as 31.
And so the Nuggets (17-13) are treading water during the toughest month of their season without key players and hope not to be buried too deep in the Western Conference standings when they are back at full strength. With this loss, they sank to seventh in the conference.
Among the Nuggets’ issues this season has been beating teams above .500, no matter who is on the court. With Wednesday’s loss, the Nuggets dropped to 7-11 against those teams this season and are 2-7 in their last nine games against winning teams. Some of those games were with a team at full or near-full strength.
Next up on this three-game road trip is Memphis, where the Nuggets have already lost, on Friday.
“You’ve got to move on,” Nuggets forward Corey Brewer said. “It’s just one of those games, and it’s a short season this year. … You’ve got to move on.”
Christopher Dempsey: 303-954-1279 or cdempsey@denverpost.com
Nuggets Recap
What you might have missed
The Nuggets scored fewer than 20 points in two of the four quarters. … At the end of the third quarter before the bench was emptied, the Nuggets’ reserves had outscored the starters 31-23. … Ty Lawson finished with a season-low three points.
Final thought
Clearly the Nuggets’ ugliest game of the season.
Up next
At Memphis, Friday, 6 p.m.
Christopher Dempsey, The Denver Post
