SI:AM | What’s Wrong With the Nuggets?

A 145–118 blowout against the Knicks was the low point of their season thus far.

Murray’s shooting splits have dipped this season. / Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. Between Memphis’s upset over UConn, Auburn’s last-second win over Iowa State and North Carolina’s 21-point comeback against Dayton, the first day of the Maui Invitational could not have been any better.

In today’s SI:AM:

⛏️ Nuggets’ struggles
🏈 Ravens win Harbowl
💰 The evolution of Juan Soto

Rocky Mountain low

A month into the NBA season, the Denver Nuggets—less than two years removed from the franchise’s first championship—find themselves languishing in the middle of the Western Conference standings. And they reached a new low in a 145–118 shellacking at the hands of the New York Knicks at home on Monday night.

The Knicks led by 23 at the end of the first half and never looked back. The Nuggets never cut the lead to fewer than 17 points. OG Anunoby led the way for New York with a career-high 40 points and Karl-Anthony Towns added 30 on 12-of-15 shooting.

Denver coach Michael Malone called out his team for their poor effort after the loss.

“Tonight, we got embarrassed,” Malone said. “We’re 16 games in and we’re talking about effort. We have to ask ourselves this question: Who do we want to be as a team?

“Playing like you actually care would be great.”

The Nuggets players, to their credit, agreed that their effort was lacking.

“It’s not X’s and O’s,” Jamal Murray said. “It wasn’t miss or make. I just think that they played harder.”

The most confounding thing for the Nuggets is that they laid an egg so soon after a dominant 127–102 road win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday. But it’s been that sort of up-and-down season for Denver. The Nuggets are 9–7 on the year, tied with the Phoenix Suns for seventh place in the West. It’s an unexpected spot to see the Nuggets after they finished in the top three in the conference in five of the past six seasons, but it isn’t undeserved.

The biggest difference between this year’s Nuggets team and last year’s is the defense. Denver has never been an excellent defensive squad but ranking near the middle, or closer to the top, of the league over the past several years has allowed its efficient offense to lead the way. This year, though, the defense has slipped. The 145 points the Knicks scored on Monday night were the most allowed by any team in a game this season. The Nuggets are also one of just six teams not to hold an opponent under 100 points in any game this season. They rank 23rd in points allowed per game and 17th in points allowed per 100 possessions. By comparison, last season they ranked sixth in points allowed per game and eighth in defensive efficiency.

One reason for the slip is that Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, one of the best perimeter defenders in the NBA, left in free agency and signed with the Orlando Magic. Aaron Gordon, another solid defender, has been out since Nov. 4 with a calf injury and remains sidelined indefinitely. You can’t expect a shorthanded Nuggets team to hold its opponents in check if the players aren’t giving their all every night, which is why Malone decried his players’ lack of effort on Monday. And he wasn’t afraid to name names. Malone said he appreciated veteran Russell Westbrook’s leadership, but that the team needs its top players to step up and take charge.

“He’s vocal,” Malone said of Westbrook. “But we need more than Russell Westbrook. I need Nikola Jokić. I need Jamal Murray. I need guys that have been here in that starting lineup to be vocal. And tonight we got embarrassed.”

Fortunately for the Nuggets, as long as Jokić remains an elite player, they’ll be capable of beating just about anybody. And Jokić has been as excellent as ever this season. He leads the NBA with 13.4 rebounds per game and is fourth in scoring and second in assists. He’s the kind of do-it-all superstar who can paper over a lot of a team’s deficiencies. But unless Denver figures things out on the defensive end, a return to championship contention remains a long way off.

Baltimore took down L.A. in Monday’s Harbowl. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

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The top five…

… things I saw yesterday:

5. No. 1 NHL draft pick Macklin Celebrini’s no-look goal, his fifth of the season.
4. Lamar Jackson’s perfect accuracy on a touchdown pass that traveled more than 50 yards in the air.
3. UConn guard Solo Ball’s buzzer beater to force overtime against Memphis. The Tigers went on to win in OT, though, handing the No. 2 Huskies their first loss of the season.
2. Johni Broome’s tip-in game-winner for Auburn against Iowa State.
1. Jaden Ivey’s game-winner at the buzzer for the Pistons against the Raptors.