The Denver Nuggets started their road trip tonight against the Cleveland Cavaliers, aka the team with the best record in the NBA. The Nuggets looked lifeless to start both halves on defense and Cleveland took full advantage. The Cavs did what they do: rain threes all night long, and got far too many that were wide open. Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland and Evan Mobley had big nights scoring and that was more than enough to offset a monster triple-double from Nikola Jokic. Denver loses a frustrating one, 126-114.

The Nuggets worked the paint early and got a small lead. Cleveland started knocking down threes though, quickly tied it back up then continued to bomb threes to take a lead. Jokic countered by taking Jarrett Allen to task while Russell Westbrook was up off the bench and bringing some energy. Cleveland continued to hit outside shots but Denver was yet to hit one themselves (didn’t even attempt one for about six minutes). The Cavs once again took the lead but Jokic and Westbrook were keeping Denver in it down the stretch. Outside of them though there was no offense. The Nuggets had a terrible close to the quarter, gave up a total of nine three pointers in the first and ended it down 37-27.

The Cavs knocked down an open three in the first possession of the second which induced a Michael Malone rage timeout 13 seconds in. Cleveland’s lead grew until Jamal Murray finally started getting his midrange game going. That led a 9-2 run to get the game back within nine points. Jokic checked back in shortly after that. The Cavs started going cold from the floor while Aaron Gordon was taking his turn scoring. Jokic continued to orchestrate and in a nice change of pace Cleveland was ice cold. After a Christian Braun dunk brought Denver within two Kenny Atkinson took a timeout. The Cavs were able to stop the bleeding after that with a couple more threes but the half closed tight with Denver trailing 66-62.

The Nuggets finally started hitting some threes of their own to open the second half but still weren’t executing on defense. The outside shooting didn’t last and that prevented Denver from taking the lead. Suddenly they couldn’t buy a bucket and the Cavs built their lead back up. Halfway through the quarter Denver was trailing by ten. It wasn’t all bad though. Allen hilariously attempted a dunk but misjudged it by about a foot and came up with all iron. There wasn’t a ton to be excited about for Denver otherwise. With the quarter drawing down they stayed trailing by right around ten points. The Nuggets just missed too many easy buckets in the third quarter while also refusing to play defense. Cleveland’s lead grew up to eighteen in the final minutes and by the time the buzzer sounded Denver still trailed by fifteen, 102-87.

It was more of the same to start the fourth quarter and probably could have been worse if not for Cleveland missing some open shots. There started to be some slumped shoulders on Denver’s side. Gordon tried to get the team together to huddle up before a free throw but only two guys came over and it looked like the Nuggets were ready to pack it in. Malone put the starters back in with just over six minutes to go for one last ditch effort at it (or perhaps punishment for the lack of effort). They went on a mini-run but time was quickly becoming a factor. A Porter three brought it back to a single digit lead with three and a half minutes to go. Denver still made a mistake here or there though and every time they did it felt like a death sentence. After Garland blew by on a pick and roll for an easy layup to push the lead back to thirteen with just under two minutes to go it was over. Denver loses a game that felt like they never really gave themselves a chance. Final score Cleveland 126, Denver 114.

It’s not talent, it’s effort

It’s a frustrating time to watch the Nuggets right now. You can understand losing to Cleveland, they have the best record in the NBA for a reason, but it’s the way Denver lost that’s so frustrating. It was wide open three after wide open three for the Cavs mixed with sloppy play from Denver that sometimes looked simply uninspired. Far too few closeouts, far too many offensive rebounds given up (again) and far too little energy to both start the game and the second half. The Nuggets have got to figure this funk out, it’s holding them back more than anything else right now.

Tough night to not have a true backup five

Dec 5, 2024; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward Evan Mobley (4) shoots beside Denver Nuggets forward Peyton Watson (8) in the fourth quarter at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-Imagn Images

I’m not going to freak out too much because Cleveland has two high quality bigs, but tonight was a tough night for the bench in part because Gordon at the five against this team was tough. The length and size of Mobley was particularly troublesome for the bench and he got pretty much whatever he wanted in the paint during those minutes. It’s not Gordon’s fault and often times he’d get switched off Mobley and another much smaller player was left to deal with him. Meanwhile Allen dominated on the glass anytime Nikola (who had twenty rebounds) was not on the floor. Denver tried to use Zeke Nnaji in the first half but let’s just say it wasn’t a look they wanted to go back to in the second half. At this point it seems like DeAndre Jordan is, sigh, once again Denver’s best option at the backup five, at least in these games where the opposition is rolling out a premier big in the non-Nikola minutes.