They were coasting their way to yet another home victory. Still, despite the Pistons holding Denver to only 15 points in the third quarter, the Nuggets carried an 81-62 lead into the fourth quarter. There were two separate timeouts that Malone took out of pure anger and so he can get his team back to playing the right way despite their sizable lead. The third quarter began the same way the second quarter did - with the Pistons making a mini-run and Nuggets head coach Michael Malone getting infuriated with his team for not giving anywhere near maximum effort. Those two combined to score 42 points in the first half as they led Denver to a 66-39 lead after two quarters. That combination allowed the Pistons to scrape and claw their way within 10 points of the Nuggets, but that boost was short-lived as Denver’s starters returned and once again took control of the game.ĭespite allowing the Pistons to get within 10 points, the Nuggets stormed back behind the hot-shooting of Jamal Murray and the ever-consistent production of Jokic. The Pistons began to execute at a much higher level as Denver’s offense became stagnant. The second quarter was a very different experience. Jokic fakes the behind the back pass before throwing it off the glass to Plumlee.īut was it on purpose? /HJPpuemhVkĪt the end of the first quarter, Denver held the Pistons to just nine points, the second-lowest scoring quarter in the league in the 2018-19 season, and went on to lead 27-9 after the first 12 minutes. No plays epitomized the fun that the Nuggets were having offensively than this sequence from Nikola Jokic. Not all of their shots fell, but Denver was effortlessly creating good looks against an obviously exhausted Pistons squad. Offensively, Denver was as loose and joyful as they have been all year. Somehow, Denver kept Detroit from converting their second - and sometimes third - chances, but allowing that many extra possessions is not a recipe for success. The one issue Denver had in the first quarter was the 10 offensive rebounds they allowed. Jokic was contesting every shot he could, Gary Harris was a pest on the perimeter, Jokic was playing great positional defense, and all of that culminated into a fantastic start defensively. On defense, Denver forced Detroit into missing ten-straight shots. This is the first time the Nuggets have reached 50 wins since the 2012-13 season when they won a franchise-best 57 wins.ĭenver was clicking from the moment the opening tip had been tossed up. Detroit was playing for their playoff lives and came in with a bit of desperation after losing three of their last four games.ĭenver, despite doing their best to five away their win, beat the Pistons 95-92 for their 31st home win and, most importantly, their 50th win of the 2018-19 season. In their path stood the Detroit Pistons, who entered their matchup with the Nuggets as the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference, but with just one and a half games separating them from the ninth seed. After a demoralizing loss in Indiana against the Pacers, the Denver Nuggets headed back to the Mile High City looking to get back on track.
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