The Denver Nuggets (20-17) pulled away from the 134-111 Wednesday night, thanks to 36 points from and a defensive turnaround in the second half.
Here are seven takeaways from the victory:
1. Gary’s game. Harris (uncharacteristically) did not speak to reporters following the game. But plenty of others heaped on the praise following his 14-of-17 shooting performance to match his career-high in scoring.
: “I didn’t even realize (he had so many points). In the first quarter, I saw ‘20’ and I was like, ‘What?! Thatap a lot.’ You see how he’s aggressive. Thatap how he’s supposed to be. Thatap how he’s supposed to play. Being a guard, he’s outside the 3-point line, so the inside is so open. He can help (the posts) with that a lot.”
: “Gary can do whatever he wants. I guard him every day in practice. He’s really good.”
Michael Malone: “Gary Harris just had one of those nights. The start he got off to was incredible.”
2. Trusting the bench. Malone kept his word on expanding his bench, with , , , and Beasley all entering the game in the first quarter. All but Faried finished with double-digit minutes. That group was largely on the floor when Denver’s double-digit lead completely evaporated in the second quarter, but Malone refused to peg all the blame on the reserves.
Beasley in particular had an impact, with 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting to go with three assists, two rebounds, one steal and one block in 16 minutes. One of those assists was a nifty touch pass to Lyles for a two-handed slam in the second half. Two of those baskets came while on the receiving end of a highlight pass from Jokic — a behind-the-back dish in transition for a dunk, and an alley-oop on an out-of-bounds play with less than a second left in the third quarter.
“I tell (Jokic) every day, ‘I’m running. Find me,’” Beasley said. “He always does, whether itap cutting in the halfcourt or getting out in transition.”
Added Jokic: “You can see he’s running fast.”
3. Toughing it out. Barton played with a “high fever” Wednesday night, finishing with 12 points on 5-of-13 shooting and adding six assists in 20 minutes. He said he started feeling ill Tuesday night, then missed shootaround Wednesday morning before being deemed healthy enough to play by the medical staff before the game. Barton said his sickness impacted his performance “a little bit,” but he was clearly lacking his normal energy following the game.
4. Battling on the boards. Malone said before the game that offensive rebounding was one of his primary concerns, as the Suns entered Wednesday ranked fifth in the NBA in that category at 11.2 per game. They actually exceeded that total with 14. But the Nuggets had an overall edge of 48-35.
5. More stats. Good for Denver: 23 fastbreak points, 21 points scored off turnovers and a combined 9-of-29 shooting night for Phoenix stars Devin Booker and TJ Warren. Bad for Denver: 20 turnovers, its highest mark in seven games.
6. Fire away? One player who still was not part of Malone’s expanded rotation? Former backup point guard , who as of Wednesday night ranked last among NBA point guards in defensive plus/minus, which measures a player’s estimated on-court impact on team performance. But he’s continued to fire shots in his limited minutes, going 2-of-3 in 2:01 Wednesday. That followed up a 2-for-2 showing in 1:32 last week against Utah, his only other minutes since returning from a sprained ankle.
7. Squashing skids. Five teams besides Denver have not suffered a three-game losing streak this season: Boston, Toronto, Washington, Minnesota and Golden State. All are in the top 4 of their respective conference. On the other side, the Nuggets also have not won more than three in a row so far this season. Hence, the 20-17 record to hold the sixth spot in the West.
