No Jokic, no Murray, no problem: Shorthanded Nuggets stun Warriors

The Golden State Warriors had won 12 of 13 games after making major changes at the NBA Trade Deadline and without Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and others it looked like the Denver Nuggets were going to keep their West foes hot—but not so fast my friend.

Led by a Nuggets-high 38 points from Aaron Gordon and Russell Westbrook’s season-high 16 assists to get the puppies organized—Denver powered past the Warriors 114-105. With less than half of the Nuggets healthy rotation available, the dueling turnover competition between the teams resulted in a helter-skelter game that the young Denver team was able to take advantage of, speeding to 25 points in transition.

Hunter Tyson got his first NBA start, Spencer Jones got his first real NBA minutes and Vlatko Cancar got his first big opportunity since coming back from a months-long injury. Zeke Nnaji and Jalen Pickett played, and Michael Porter Jr. and Peyton Watson rounded out the starters as nine special Nuggets handed the Warriors their ninth-straight loss to Denver.

“Outstanding, couldn’t be more proud of our group. Tough loss the other night to Washington to close out a five-game in seven nights (stretch), and we know you’re coming on a tough four-game road trip, and then you’re without three starters. And all I asked of our guys going into I said, just compete. Have each other’s backs, just compete. And did they do that at such a high level,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone, of Irish heritage, said Monday on Saint Patrick’s Day. “So Luck of the Irish man, luck of the Irish.”

Denver was coming off maybe the worst loss of the season and responded with arguably their best. It jumpstarted a four-game swing that goes through Los Angeles on Wednesday, Portland on Friday and Houston on Sunday. And to do it without three starters including Christian Braun and other key figure Julian Strawther, meant not only was Denver down their MVP but without a single shooting guard on their normal roster.

“Spencer, you know, he’s been tearing it up in the G League,” Malone said of his forced backup shooting guard on Monday, who finished his five years at Stanford last March. “His size, his physicality, his defense, and that’s what you love. He went to school nearby, and for him to come back here and play a game on national TV and help us win it this time of year, wins are important, could not be more proud of a group than I am of our guys.”

Jones was a plus-three with six points, and a block, steal, assist and rebound. He played as much on Monday as he has in garbage time the last six weeks. He had some really nice defense including a rip of Steph Curry, who was hounded at times by Tyson, Watson and Westbrook. Curry had seven of the Warriors’ 21 turnovers, the most Denver has forced since Thanksgiving as they turned in their best defense effort by points allowed since Feb. 8.

“He’s tired, Steph has been carrying us for a month, he’s been amazing and we got to get him some rest,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said after the game. “It’s hard to win an NBA game when you throw the ball to the other team 10 times. They played great. The minute we heard those guys were out, we’ve seen this a million times, this is how it works in the NBA. The other guys go nuts. I’ve seen it a lot and we didn’t respond right away, never found a rhythm, and the right team won. We were awful.”

Awful besides the turnovers were the Warriors from the line, where they went 15-of-27 and from three, hitting just eight of 33 deep balls. The Nuggets hit most of their free throws and banged 14 of 39 threes, led by four from Gordon. As is it goes this time of year, sometimes there can be a lot of turnovers but whoever can get hot from three and hit free throws can win a night despite talent disparities.

“I think maybe some of our players realize, you don’t have the three-time MVP, who’s 30 points a night. You don’t have Jamal Murray, who’s 20 points a night. You don’t have CB, who’s the number one transition player in the league. Well, that means we got to play hard, we got to play desperate. We got to play urgent,” Malone said. “And we did that for 48 minutes… we asked a lot of our guys, and that’s why I’m so thankful to get that win. I would hate to have put all that into it and have that game not go our way down the stretch, and we battled through it and found a way. And that’s what good teams do.”

And just as true when the basketball strikes madness is veteran guard play and a dominant big man can carry. That was the case for the Nuggets sparked by the strongest man on the floor in Gordon and savviest in Westbrook.

Gordon added to his high-scoring total with six rebounds, as the Nuggets won the glass by 14 boards, while Westbrook added a team-high 11, as part of his NBA best 203rd career Triple-Double—where he also scored 12.

“Whether Nikola plays or doesn’t play, you can play defense, you can rebound, you can be disciplined. And the guys that were able to play tonight, all nine of them showed that, ” Malone said. “Hopefully, we can get Nicola back, Jamal back, CB back, as quickly as possible, but until they come back, that’s opportunities for everybody else to go out there.”

With Houston’s win on Monday, the Nuggets (44-25) stay tied with the Rockets (44-25) for second in the West. The Grizzlies (43-23) loss drops them down to fifth, a game back while the Lakers (42-25) won but have fewer games played because of the wildfires and are tied with Denver in the loss column. That puts a lot of pressure on Wednesday’s (and Sunday’s) game, with the season series and thus the tiebreaker on the line.

The Nuggets more or less secured they won’t be a play-in team on Monday, moving four and a half games up on the Warriors and nabbing the series and thus the tiebreaker in the process. When it’s mid-April and the Nuggets don’t have to care about the play-in—maybe thank Spencer Jones, who won’t even be eligible for the postseason.