Part of facing the Utah Jazz means having to accept some realities.
Chief among them: The open court will not be your friend.
No team cuts off and shrinks the court quite like the Jazz, which plays old-school Eastern Conference defense in the wide-open West. One hundred points might be the goal, but Utah doesn’t cooperate with that either — just one of four opponents has been able to hit the century mark against the Jazz going into Thursday night.
The Nuggets weren’t the next.
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Utah suffocated the Nuggets’ offense, and the home team faded, losing 96-84. The Nuggets are now 0-2 at the Pepsi Center.
“I was here when we were always winning at home,” foward Danilo Gallinari said. “So we definitely have to try to get back to that level where we don’t lose at home. Denver has always been great for us, so we’ve got to get back to that situation.”
Try as they might, the Nuggets couldn’t wade through the muck to get it done. Utah’s half-court defense was too stifling. And Rudy Gobert, Utah’s 7-foot last line of defense at the rim, was at his shot-blocking and shot-altering best.
And adding insult to all of that, when it counted, the Nuggets’ defense failed as well.
That turned what was a close game — what was at one time a 13-point Nuggets lead — into a near-blowout. Utah took a 17-point lead in the fourth quarter, and only a couple of Nuggets baskets kept the deficit from growing to over 20.
“Going in, coach was saying don’t make it a half-court game,” guard Emmanuel Mudiay said. “We’ve got to learn to defend without fouling and get stops. That’s the main thing.”
Utah was deadly at turning Nuggets turnovers into points. It cashed in 14 Nuggets miscues into 23 points.
The Jazz got stronger as the game wore on, shooting 47 percent in the fourth quarter — and all of this on the second game of a back-to-back.
“The fourth quarter, basically what it came down to is it got tight. … We hit a little adversity and didn’t respond back,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “They took it up to another level, and that’s when they broke the game open. Tonight our fourth-quarter defense, they scored 31 points in the fourth quarter. That can’t happen.”
This was the first of a back-to-back for the Nuggets, who shot 29.4 percent in the fourth. They get Golden State on Friday in Oakland, Calif. The Warriors beat Memphis last week by 50 points.
The Nuggets were led by Gallinari’s 18 points. Only two other players, Randy Foye and Will Barton, reached double figures. The Nuggets shot 38.9 percent from the field and just 25 percent from the 3-point line.
Utah was led by Gordon Hayward’s 20 points. Gobert dominated the paint, finishing with eight points, 16 rebounds and three blocks.
Christopher Dempsey: cdempsey@denverpost.com or @dempseypost
Trouble at home
The Nuggets fell to 0-2 at home Thursday night with a 96-84 loss to Utah. Some reasons why:
After shooting 52.9 percent in the first quarter (9-of-17) to lead 24-19, Denver shot 34.5 percent (19-55) the rest of the way and was outscored 77-60. Danilo Gallinari scored 18 points for Denver, the lone starter to reach double figures.The Nuggets made just 5-of-20 from 3-point range and were outscored by 18 points from there.Utah outscored Denver 31-20 in the fourth quarter.
