PHILADELPHIA — The 1983 and 1990 Denver Nuggets were sweating at halftime.
A franchise that didn’t possess many records or milestones before last season was at least responsible, on separate occasions, for the highest-scoring NBA game of all time (370 combined points in 1983) and the highest-scoring regulation game (320 in 1990).
Nikola Jokic, Joel Embiid and company were keeping decent pace with history for the first half of a marquee clash of MVP centers. The game eventually slowed down as Denver committed four of its 10 turnovers in the fourth quarter, and the 76ers emerged with a 126-121 win Tuesday at Wells Fargo Center in the first of two matchups this month between teams contending near the top of the standings in their respective conferences.
“Love how hard our guys played,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said, pointing to execution rather than effort as the difference. “… Obviously not the outcome we wanted, but proud of our effort. We just have to be a little bit cleaner for 48.”
After a first half in which neither team could make a run because neither team could get a stop, Denver and Philadelphia exchanged haymakers in the second half. The Nuggets (28-14) ended the third quarter on a 12-0 surge after trailing by eight. But the decisive blow belonged to Embiid and the 76ers. The hosts fell behind 111-105 with 8:41 remaining when Reggie Jackson sunk a 3-pointer out of a pick-and-roll with DeAndre Jordan. Then Philly responded with a 16-2 run, featuring a Marcus Morris game-tying 4-point play and culminating when Embiid nailed a three over Jokic with 4:53 to go.
“Both teams picked it up a little bit defensively, but we didn’t play with the same pace or rhythm or flow that we had in the first half,” Michael Porter Jr. said. “We’ve just gotta find a way to make teams play our pace.”
Embiid finished with 41 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds. Jokic had 25 points and 19 rebounds, including a career-high 11 offensive boards by the end of the third quarter. Jamal Murray amassed 17 points and 10 assists.
“Joel is a very, very difficult cover,” Malone said. “Hell of a player.”
It was 78-78 at halftime after Murray’s buzzer-beater three. All 10 starters were shooting better than 50% from the field. Seven total players were in double figures, including Christian Braun off the Nuggets’ bench. The 76ers were shooting at a better clip as a team, but Jokic negated that advantage by snatching seemingly every Denver miss.
In a maneuver reminiscent of what he did as Toronto’s coach last season with O.G. Anunoby, Nick Nurse guarded Jokic with non-centers rather than Embiid for much of the night, mixing up coverages. Jokic exploited the tactic by leaving his biggest imprint on the glass — “I’m kind of used to it,” he said — but he was also responsible for four of his team’s turnovers in a mostly clean game. He also missed two open 3s in crunch time as Denver was trying to rally. Meanwhile, Malone used Aaron Gordon as a primary matchup on Embiid more than past games, double-teaming whenever possible — at the expense of an open Tyrese Maxey (25 points, 4 of 9 from three, 1 of 10 from behind the baseline when attempting to dislodge a ball from the top of the backboard).
“We kind of helped them with the turnovers,” Jokic said. “… The game got away with a couple of turnovers. Which they’re (good at) doing. They’re No. 1 in steals. It was an interesting game.”
Before they could play the first of five games on a season-long 11-day road trip, the Nuggets couldn’t get off the ground. The team flight to Philadelphia, which was scheduled to leave at noon local time Monday, got delayed five hours on the tarmac after the plane’s engine froze due to inclement weather. It was around 10:30 p.m. ET by the time the Nuggets reached their hotel in Philadelphia.
“We sang some songs. Held hands,” Malone said. “We made the most of the moment. The nine-hour moment.”
Jokic, asked what he did on the plane, lamented a missed opportunity to visit a horse-racing track in Philadelphia. “Nothing for five hours,” he said. “Nothing.”
As the travel delay lengthened, all five Nuggets starters appeared on the team’s Monday night injury report as questionable with various afflictions. They were each upgraded to probable Tuesday, and Malone said pregame there would be no limits on any of their minutes. Nor would there be on Embiid’s, Nurse said, even with Philadelphia finishing a back-to-back.
The injury report chair-pull was an ironic twist on the narrative that drove Nuggets fans gaga last season: that Embiid is too often conveniently unavailable for big games (such as Philadelphia’s only road game at Denver last season). The next test of that theory will be Jan. 27 at Ball Arena.
