The Nuggets are coming off a 31-point loss at the Clippers

The expected shock caused an “explosion”. After losing in Minnesota three days ago, the Nuggets have continued their impressive run. They stifled and almost finished the Clippers (122-91), who suffered their fourth straight loss (only John Wall and Nicolas Batum were out).

To understand the difference between the two teams in this match, there is one number to consider: zero. Or as many times as Californians count. Their slow start in the first few minutes gradually turned into a nightmare. They couldn’t make a shot, ending the first quarter in a cabbage dominated by the locals (32-15).

Bis repeated in the second quarter, after which the Nuggets scored double points of their opponents (66-32). Next? The Clippers will certainly respond offensively (from a long shot…), but not much can be said without leaving this matchup and the unexpected “garbage time”. At the end of the third quarter, the gap reached a record level for the evening … 43 points (102-59).

WHAT TO REMEMBER

– 19-0 in the second quarter. It’s crazy to think that the Nuggets already had a 19-point lead (42-23) when they started this streak. But this transition allowed them to close the debate an hour earlier. They did it thanks to their replacements, starting with Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who was very comfortable on the long shot in transition. Bones Hyland also powered through as Bruce Brown brought his energy and Vlatko Cancar went up for a dunk in transition. Denver could already rest before Kawhi Leonard’s extremely rare basket to end this “run” (61-23).

– Tyronn Lue empowers his players. It is interesting that the “Clippers” coach took two timeouts in the first half when his team started to slip in the score. On the other hand, he did not insist on the second. As the gap seriously increased, he decided to take a seven-minute time-out after the technical break, after which the pair of Leonard – George scored again. Accustomed to seeing his team perform miracles when they were far behind, he saw none that night.

TOPS/FLOPS

✅ Jamal Murray. It’s hard to put one player ahead of the rest of the Nuggets team because there are so many of them, but the leader scored 13 straight points in the first quarter to get his team off to a great start. He often gave up the creative floor, led by Nikola Jokic, who was the best passer of the night.

✅ The Nuggets bench. The replacements just didn’t shine because it was a “blast”. Bones Hyland, Bruce Brown, Vlatko Cancar, not to mention his first career double-double, Zeke Nnaji, all had a role to play, especially in the second quarter, to widen the gap big enough for Denver not to worry about later. .

⛔ Clippers address. The Nuggets have certainly shown enough defensive prowess to put together their best performance of the year in this area. But the Californians missed too many good shots to put up their worst offensive game of the season. They tied their lowest point total and posted their worst percentage from behind the 3-point line: 5/37 or… 13.5% success. A special note to all California owners, none of whom have reached the 10 point mark. Only Bruce Brown has scored as many goals as Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.

NEXT

Nuggets (25-13) : hosting the Cavs the next night.

Clippers (21-19) : next night travel to Wolves.