The Philadelphia 76ers face the Denver Nuggets tonight with several key players missing the game due to injury or suspension. Denver didn’t use that as an excuse to not execute and they came out early to put Philadelphia away. The game was a complete laugher by halftime and none of the Nuggets starters needed to play in the fourth quarter. Nikola Jokic had fourteen assists in just twenty-five minutes and Christian Braun put in twenty-two points to lead the Nuggets in scoring. Philly meanwhile was just happy to get out of the building after taking a wire to wire 124-96 butt whooping from Denver.
Both teams were fighting to get points in the early going with Philly running every chance they got. They got a couple early baskets but stalled out and Denver started to build a lead. Jokic was diming up his teammates and the starters were sharing the ball. It got a bit sloppy around the midway point and the Sixers pulled within four. It didn’t last, Jokic continued to dominate and the lead went back up. The refereeing was really rough to start the game, including the refs missing the Sixers trying to get a timeout to review a call so instead they called a weak offensive foul on Jokic…then called another one on him 15 seconds later and gave him a technical to boot. Still, going down the stretch the Nuggets held a double digit lead. By the time the first ended Denver was up 38-22.
The second quarter opened with more of the same from the Nuggets. Jonas Valanciunas posterized Adem Bona and the Sixers had to call timeout when the lead got up over 20. Jonas kept playing man ball and the bench was bullying Philadelphia in general. The lead kept creeping up, by just under the midway point of the quarter it was getting past twenty-five. The officiating continued to be comically bad but the Nuggets continued to be good, including Cameron Johnson who was having a nice night. With about three minutes left the lead got up to thirty. It was a very chippy game, Jokic and Andre Drummond had a heated moment on an inbound where Joker pretty much refused to not push Drummond. All in all it was still a great quarter for Denver. At the half they were up 72-40.
The Nuggets offense, perhaps resting on the laurels of a 30+ point lead, struggled to score opening the second half and had just six points in the first three and a half minutes. Eventually Jokic got them going and got the lead back up to thirty. David Adelman got a technical midway through the quarter when the refs decided two handed pushing Jokic in the back on a layup attempt was in fact a natural basketball play. Towards the back end of the quarter the Nuggets started to get a bit lackadaisical and sloppy. Marjon Beauchamp knocked a couple of threes and had the lead back down to twenty-five. The starters checked out, hoping not to return and the Nuggets closed out the quarter still in front 100-71.
The fourth quarter started out insulting the game of basketball. We even got an Andre Drummond three point attempt. After that the game went through a long dry spell for both teams. There was over two minutes without a field goal from either side before Bruce Brown knocked down a three. The Sixers dry spell went even longer. Beauchamp scored seven points in the first half of the fourth quarter and that accounted for all of the Sixers field goals up to that point which let Denver get to a 111-82 lead. The Nuggets seemed ready to just coast after that. Dominick Barlow got a couple buckets but there wasn’t much else to write home about on either side. Julian Strawther showed that he’s still a capable scorer even though he’s back on the deep bench and with two minutes left the lead was still around thirty. Eventually it came to a merciful end for the Sixers and the Nuggets earned a 124-96 victory.
