PHILADELPHIA — Three takeaways the morning after the Nuggets’ 105-98 loss to the 76ers on Tuesday night at the Wells Fargo Center on Wednesday.
Jump-shot happy. One of the Nuggets most concerning trends of late has been their willingness to shoot jump shot after jump shot after jump shot. In the loss to Philadelphia on Tuesday, it reached new levels. Of the Nuggets’ 85 shots, 52 of them were jump shots. They took 31 3-pointers in the game, and made 12, so that could have been worse. But in the second quarter alone the Nuggets took just 10 of their 26 shots in the paint.
If you’re thinking it was staunch Philadelphia defense that reduced the Nuggets shot selection to just those along the perimeter…well…not so much. Sure, there was the requisite ‘keep the opponent out of the paint’ defense, and Philly is one of the NBA’s best shot-blocking teams, but by and large it was a lack of aggressiveness that led to the high number of jump shots hoisted by the Nuggets. The one player who did force the issue, driving into the paint — Danilo Gallinari — was rewarded with 11 free throw attempts. He made 10.
Low shot total for Ty. Of all of the reasons why the Nuggets would win or lose a game, production from Ty Lawson is near the top of the list. Simply, they need it. If, as the team’s leading scorer, he’s not scoring, then winning becomes that much more difficult. So on Tuesday he took four shots total, making one, to finish with five points, 11 below his season average.
According to Lawson, Philadelphia defenders prevented his main mode of scoring – getting to the rim – and so he became almost solely a passer, finishing with 14 assists. “I was aggressive but every time I got into the paint all I saw was Nerlens Noel and all of them,” Lawson said. “And they stayed with me until I gave the ball up. So I couldn’t really step back and get my jumper off or anything like that. But I was definitely looking for shots.
No Nurkic impact. When center Jusuf Nurkic was on the court, he was generally fine. He had seven points and three rebounds — but just in 12 minutes of play. And that was due to fouling cropping back up as an issue. No sooner had the game started ,than before you knew it, J.J. Hickson was in the game. That was due to Nurkic picking up two quick fouls and having to be removed. Without him, as per usual, the Nuggets defensive rating ballooned from 99.9 to 103.4. Although, offensively the Nuggets were better without him on the court; their offensive rating jumped nearly 10 points while he sat. Still, getting a normal number of minutes out of the rookie would have been better than what transpired.
Follow Chris Dempsey on Twitter @dempseypost or email him at cdempsey@denverpost.com
