Nuggets play hard but fall again without Nikola Jokic

The Denver Nuggets played hard but had absolutely nothing left in the fourth quarter of a second tight game in two nights, dropping to the Chicago Bulls 129-119 on Monday.

The Nuggets were without Nikola Jokic for a fifth-straight game as he deals with an ankle injury. While his return is promised during this five-game homestand it didn’t come soon enough for a fatigued Denver squad that’s short in the frontcourt. After not playing for 10 straight games, DeAndre Jordan got his second start of the season on Sunday. Putting up a double-double, Jordan pushed the Nuggets past the Rockets. Without Jokic and Aaron Gordon too—plus the season-long injury to DaRon Holmes and Dario Saric not playing in a month—the Nuggets went back to Jordan for his first time starting on both sides of a back-to-back since November of 2021. Jordan provided another double-double of a game-high 17 rebounds and 10 points but he wasn’t as efficient and his energy faded down the stretch. It was the first time Jordan had a double-double in consecutive games since the week before the NBA shut down due to COVID.

The Nuggets were up 13 points early in the game and four points early in the fourth quarter before getting out-scored 34-20 the rest of the way. The Bulls got a ton from the East’s back-to-back Player of the Week Colby White, scorching for 37 points. He cashed five threes, leading a Chicago effort of 17-of-39 from deep—to just 11-of-36 from the Nuggets. Michael Porter Jr. was 1-of-10 from range and benched for the closing stretch.

“I thought our guys, considering the circumstances, three games in four nights, I thought we played hard, but we needed to play harder,” Michael Malone said. “Give up 31 points in transition, and that was the whole message all day long against arguably the best running team in the league… I could tell we were dead tired in that third quarter, fourth quarter turnover made basket, and they were just driving the ball down our throat, throwing the ball over our heads, and we just weren’t able to get back. So, yeah, I thought our guys competed, but against that team, you got to compete even harder.”

Jamal Murray had another big night, scoring 28 points on 22 shots with seven helpers and five boards. He was co-piloted by a career-high 24 points on 12 shots from Peyton Watson, adding six rebounds and four blocks.

“We all should be taking this loss hard, I think there’s a lot of guys in the locker room that have taken this loss hard,” Malone said. “Jamal went out there, competed, been playing at a high level, and they gave him a lot of extra attention, and we needed some other guys to step up and make some plays, and we just weren’t unable to do so tonight. That happens at times.”

The Nuggets are now 4-7 without Jokic, they’ll host Milwaukee on Wednesday. If they’re without Jokic again, they’re likely to get Gordon back, who was kept out due to an abundance of caution because of several injuries throughout the year. But the Bucks play big and even the Bulls, who go small, showed another flaw in the Nuggets roster. With the whiff of a signing that was Saric, the unlucky injury to Holmes and the miscasting of Zeke Nnaji—the Nuggets just don’t have many options with their size. And going small isn’t a great solve either, proved by White torching Christian Braun, a constant theme from smaller guards on Denver’s defense this season.

“I just think for the playoffs coming up, we need to be a little bit better,” Murray said on the team’s communication. “I think that will take care of some of the mistakes or breakdowns that we are having. But we’re playing hard. Guys are coming in and playing hard. Everybody’s just kind of like playing pretty solid. But I think it’s on the defensive end, where we got to be just more elite. I think that comes with a lot of communication. So (that’s) everybody involved, me included.”

Thanks to the Lakers loss earlier in the night, the Nuggets remain one game up for third place in the West and a game-and-half behind second-place Houston.