HOUSTON — The Rockets snapped the Nuggets’ three-game winning streak in convincing fashion, drubbing Denver 130-104 Friday night at the Toyota Center.
Here are seven takeaways from the contest:
1. Bad matchup? The Nuggets have often risen to the challenge against the NBA’s best teams. They’ve beaten Golden State and Oklahoma City twice apiece. They took San Antonio to the wire less than two weeks ago. They lost two thrillers to Minnesota, and one to the Clippers. They have a 2-1 edge on both Portland and New Orleans. They blew out Toronto early in the season and have single-digit losses to both Boston (twice) and Washington. But Houston has throttled Denver twice by an average of 28 points. What gives? Michael Malone and players did not provide many specific answers, other than the Rockets are wicked in the pick and roll and Denver couldn’t buy a bucket. Clint Capela, in particular, was “unleashed” when the Nuggets switched while defending Houston’s signature play, helping him snag seven offensive rebounds and 25 total.
“Two games this year, they ran away from us,” Malone said. “We have to try to figure it out.”
2. Road woes. Denver has not won a road game since two days before Christmas, a streak lasting seven contests. Some tidbits about those games: Five were on the second night of a back-to-back set and six have come against teams currently in the playoff picture. But maybe a trip to the desert is exactly what the Nuggets need. Oddly enough, the Suns have a worse record at home (9-20) than on the road (9-18). In fact, Phoenix has more road wins than Denver, which dropped to 7-19 away from home Friday. The only Western Conference team with a worse road record? Last-place Dallas.
“At some point, we’re going to have to find ways to win games,” Malone said.
3. Free Monte. A silver lining for the Nuggets Friday? With Emmanuel Mudiay on his way to the Knicks and Devin Harris not yet with Denver, two-way rookie call-up Monte Morris put together a nice line by notching 10 points (the first of his career), six assists, three steals and one turnover in 22 minutes. Malone was impressed with the way Morris ran the team, took care of the ball and made others around him better as a distributor. Morris added he felt much more comfortable Friday than in his first NBA game action in Detroit in December.
“It was little shocking — you look across from you and you’re guarding Chris Paul,” Morris said. “That’s someone I always watched and idolized growing up. I got my first minutes against him. After the first couple trips, you get a little nervous, then it settles down and it’s basketball …
“(Paul) even drew a foul on me. That’s something I’ve never guarded before, the way he drew that foul. It was like, ‘Man, that’s a great move.’ Little things like that can help me going forward to be a better player.”
Morris made the trip to Phoenix, but said he did not know how much longer he’d stay with the Nuggets after that. Harris is also expected to meet the Nuggets in Phoenix, but whether or not he’ll be in uniform against the Suns is still to be determined. He is not permitted to play until all three players involved in Thursday’s deal are with their new team and pass their physical.
4. Missed opportunities. Though this game got completely out of hand in the second half, the score was within 10 points about midway through the second quarter. Denver perhaps could have chipped into that lead a bit more if Nikola Jokic, who went 3-of-4 from the floor in the first half, had asserted himself more when they switched James Harden onto him in the post.
“No disrespect to James Harden, (but Jokic’s) got to score,” Malone said. “He can’t look to kick out like he was looking to kick out every time tonight … if they’re going to switch James Harden onto him, he can’t let them get away with that.
“They stayed with it, and obviously if they do that again next time, we have to be a little bit more aggressive in our pursuit of exploiting that matchup if we can.”
5. Out of rhythm. Denver’s guard play was fantastic during its three-game winning streak, with Gary Harris, Jamal Murray and Will Barton combining to average 64 points per game while shooting 54.3 percent from the field and 52.7 percent from 3-point range. Friday night, that trio totaled 14 points on 7-of-21 from the floor and 0-of-10 from beyond the arc. Malone said his team got “a lot of really good looks. They just didn’t go our way.” The comment sounded a lot like several made a few weeks ago, when the tired Nuggets were slogging through a difficult January. Players and coaches half-joked after the Charlotte win that the reason their recent shooting numbers were so high was because they had practiced just three times since Jan. 19. Then they practiced on both Wednesday and Thursday before departing for Houston.
“Maybe there’s more to it than I initially thought,” Malone said.
6. Quotable. Malone on the Nuggets’ undisciplined defense: “You can’t reach in and give James Harden three free throws. At the end of the half, while he’s iso-ing, you can’t jump back and give him a step-back 3. In transition, you can’t be inside the 3-point line and give up a transition 3 … you have to have great discipline against that team, and tonight we just didn’t have it often enough.”
7. The Beard. Did you know that James Harden has his own version of Trolli sour gummy candy called “Weird Beards”? Now you know. A package came in my media packet from the Rockets’ PR staff. Yes, I ate them. And yes, they were tasty.
