A Christmas Day showcase, it was not.
At least for the Nuggets, whose seven-game winning streak was snapped at the hands of a rebuilding — yet hungry — Pelicans squad late Wednesday.
New Orleans came to for the Nuggets’ first Christmas Day game since 2012 and handed them a humbling 112-100 loss, not dissimilar from the one that happened at the end of October. Denver fell to 21-9, unable to capitalize on the national TV stage.
”Letap give them credit,” said Nuggets coach Michael Malone. “They came in here and played harder than us, wanted the game more than us.”
Led by Brandon Ingram, Jrue Holiday and Josh Hart, the Pelicans drained 18-of-43 three-point shots.
paced the Nuggets with 23 points on 8-of-20 shooting from the field, but he was hardly as dominant as he had been during their sizzling streak. added 15 points, and (13) and Jerami Grant (17) were valuable sparks off the bench.
”Every 50-50 ball was theirs, every loose ball was theirs,” said Jokic. “I cannot make one point. We didn’t box out, maybe.”
played just 16 minutes, finishing with 0 points and four assists.
Overall, the Nuggets couldn’t match the Pelicans’ energy and lost the rebounding battle, 52-41. That included 14 demoralizing offensive rebounds for the Pelicans.
”They did the same stuff the first time we played them,” Harris said, who noted the guards needed to do a better job on the glass.
The Nuggets played with more urgency in the third quarter after an underwhelming first half. and Jokic combined for 14 points as the offense found some semblance of shape, with more movement and more assertiveness. But the Pelicans kept coming under a torrent of 3-pointers and a confident, deliberate approach. The Nuggets, in particular, struggled with Ingram’s length. He scored 11 of his 31 points in the third quarter to put New Orleans up 84-80 going into the final period.
Malone said the Christmas game offered a referendum on how his team is viewed across the NBA.
“Itap an honor (to play on Christmas),” he said, one day after the team announced a new contract extension for him. “I think the season we had last year, how we performed on the big stage in the playoffs, on top of being a really young, fun, exciting team to watch with a great player in Nikola Jokic.”
The first time these two teams met, on Halloween in New Orleans, the embarrassing effort left the Nuggets baffled and searching for answers.
“Thatap right, so one holiday to the next,” Malone joked prior to the game. “Thanks for bringing that up. We don’t shy away from it. We’re all grown-(expletive) men. They embarrassed us, and there’s no other way to put it. When we watch clips, itap not to embarrass anybody, but itap to remind our players this is what they did to us, this is how they beat us.”
Malone said he had those frank discussions with players in the buildup to Wednesday.
“If we don’t get back, if we jog, if we back pedal, if we don’t have urgency to get back, they’ll do the same thing tonight,” he added. “Thatap how they play. And you have to be ready for it, so hopefully our guys understand that.”
Instead, it happened again.
