After 17 matches, the Nuggets are in 7th place in the Western Conference, and even if there is nothing alarming yet, Mike Malone is looking for explanations and answers. Why is his team unable to get his season off the ground, and what is the team's weak point? A priori, good news, the Denver coach has identified the problem: the first halves. Or more precisely, the eight minutes, straddling the first two quarters. Eight minutes played, most often, without… Nikola Jokic.
“We were talking about it the other day, and I think there was only one time in the first 16 games of the season where we won the last four minutes of the first quarter and the first four minutes of the second quarter”, reported Mike Malone before the match against the Jazz. “It was against Toronto at home. But in all other matches we lost those eight minutes, which usually coincides with Nikola's absence. »
Except that, ironically, during this home game against the Raptors, Nikola Jokic was not there…
“Six, eight minutes where everything falls apart…”
According to the Denver Postthe Nuggets are in 29th place in the NBA in point differential at halftime. On the other hand, Nikola Jokic and his teammates are 2nd in point differential in the second half.
“So there are a lot of nights where I think we're off to a good start. We are playing well. And then there's this period, this period of four, six, eight minutes where everything falls apart… And the second half, for one reason or another, is better.”
In the figures, and before the match against the Jazz, the Nuggets display a negative differential of around 7 points over this eight-minute period. And some nights, like against the Knicks this week, the gap can reach 16 points. How can we explain this inconstancy and these air gaps?
“We continue to have strange fives, and things differ depending on the players on the pitch” replies Mike Malone. “We continue to look for solutions, but it would be good to be more regular over almost 48 minutes. We rather appreciate landscapes with gentle and varied hills, whereas for the moment we have very marked peaks and valleys.”
Overall, we come back to the problems of the bench, since the Nuggets have the fifth best “Net Rating” (+6.4) since the start of the season with their starters, but the worst (-4.5) with their replacements…
