Denver Nuggets vs. New Orleans Pelicans Takeaways | Denver Nuggets
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Denver Nuggets vs. New Orleans Pelicans Takeaways | Denver Nuggets

Posted on by Amelia Pressman

It was a bit of an adventure, but the Denver Nuggets narrowly avoided another disappointing loss in New Orleans on Sunday.

Here are three takeaways from Denver’s 132-129 win, which required a 17-point comeback and five minutes of overtime:

1. This game could have been decided much earlier if Nikola Jokic had played with a stronger score-first mentality early on. Despite being protected by rookie Yves Missi, a promising if weak talent, Jokic didn’t seem interested in scoring even when he had the chance for most of the first half.

He scored his first points on a pair of free throws in the final three minutes of the second quarter and finished the first half with six points. He finished the night with another triple-double — 27 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists — on 11 of 20 shooting, but a more aggressive approach early on could have prevented him from playing nearly 43 minutes on the first night of a back-to-back placed at the back.

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2. Michael Malone made the right decision and ended the game with Russell Westbrook instead of Michael Porter Jr. Porter seemed disinterested or a bit slow most of the night.

Denver’s starting small forward scored eight points on 2-of-8 shooting. He grabbed four rebounds and blocked a few shots, but any positive performance was offset by his four turnovers and a handful of uninvolved defensive players.

The trade talks surrounding the Nuggets, largely focused on a potential Porter deal, won’t be easy to sustain, but Denver needs a more professional approach from Porter. There’s a good reason why he played less than 24 minutes while the rest of the starters played more than 35 minutes.

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3. The Nuggets won’t win this game without bench contributions from the four reserve players who played.

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Westbrook led the way with 21 points, five rebounds, five assists and three steals. Julian Strawther scored 13 points on eight shots and posted a team-best plus-minus mark of plus-20 in 20 minutes of play.

Peyton Watson still had a few highlight-reel blocks to go with five points, five rebounds and five assists, while DeAndre Jordan was serviceable in the minutes without Jokic.

The bench was one of the bigger problems all season, but they wouldn’t have been at fault if the game had gone differently. Such performances from the second session onwards give the starters significantly more room for error.

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NUGGETS 132, PELICANS 129, OT

What happened: The Nuggets trailed by one after the first quarter and fell behind 67-59 at halftime. New Orleans extended the lead to 12 after three quarters, but Denver forced overtime thanks to Jamal Murray’s one-footed jumper with nine seconds left. Nikola Jokic and Murray led the Nuggets through overtime, improving their score to 15-11.

What went well: After a difficult game in Portland, Aaron Gordon bounced back on Sunday afternoon. After scoring two points against the Trail Blazers, Gordon scored 17 points on 12 shots and grabbed eight rebounds.

What went wrong: The Nuggets turned it over 11 times in the first half, leading to 14 Pelicans points before halftime. Denver finished the game with 22 turnovers, which gave the Pelicans 27 points.

Highlight of the evening: Murray made another big shot in the final seconds of regulation time. With Denver down two in the final 20 seconds, Murray fended off a Jokic screen, dribbled out of a double-team and hit a one-footed jumper to tie the game with nine seconds left. Murray matched Jokic’s 27 points, sharing the team high.

Next: The Nuggets flew back to Denver for Monday’s game against the Suns.

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