Nikola Jokic’s 41-point game not enough as Nuggets drop to 0-2 with loss to Clippers

Two days after Nikola Jokic bluntly said the Nuggets are “not a good shooting team,” he tried to take matters into his own hands.

His 41 points and career-high seven 3-pointers were enough to erase an 18-point deficit, but not enough to protect Denver’s late lead in a 109-104 loss to the Clippers on Saturday at Ball Arena. Down three with 14 seconds left, the Nuggets drew up a play for Jokic to get a look at the top of the key, but he leaned into his shot and was unable to draw contact while the lack of balance caused him to miss to the left.

Norman Powell scored 22 of his 35 points in the fourth quarter on 8-of-9 shooting, including a game-tying 3-pointer with 53 seconds left. And James Harden scored 12 of his 23 points at the free-throw line, including a pair that gave Los Angeles the lead for good with 31 seconds to go. Michael Malone unsuccessfully challenged the Aaron Gordon foul call, and Jokic missed a free throw of his own with a chance to tie it 10 seconds later — an ironic twist ending to his superb night that started with Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon joining him for a photo op with his third MVP trophy.

“Norman Powell kicked our (butts) in the fourth. … We continued to foul jump-shooters. Lack of discipline there,” Malone said. “That’s concerning because the same guys are making the same mistakes over and over. And if a guy is considered a run-off, we can’t let him keep shooting 3s. … But as I told our team, when a guy has a fourth quarter like that, it’s on me to make sure that we’re doing something to get the ball out of his hands. And I didn’t do that. So I take ownership for that, and I have to do a better job.”

On the heels of their worst 3-point shooting game in the Malone era (7 for 39), the Nuggets were on pace to outdo themselves early. They made just nine of their first 39 total shots from the field and shot 5 for 19 in the paint during the first half, outscored 30-10 in the lane.

“I know everybody’s saying, ‘Make shots!’ But I feel even before that, I thought our spacing was awful at times,” Malone had told reporters 90 minutes before tip. “I mean, just getting guys to the corner. Open the court up. Use the entire depth and width of the court. Getting more organized, especially with our second unit.”

Unlike Thursday, when Westbrook and Julian Strawther replaced Murray and Christian Braun as Denver’s first substitutions, Strawther checked in alone this time — for Michael Porter Jr. Even with that immediate adjustment to Malone’s rotations, the second unit dug a hole, clearly struggling with chemistry and where to be positioned on the floor. Clippers center Ivica Zubac feasted on the smaller lineup, going for 24 points and 15 rebounds.

When Murray joined Porter in a double-stagger to start the second quarter, the lineup won its minutes by a point and executed its actions better — but still, nobody could buy a bucket. The starting unit didn’t help. Rock bottom was at the 4:57 mark of the half when Malone called a timeout trailing 42-24.

Out of that timeout? Consecutive 3s for Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon and Jokic to do half the work in an 80-second stretch. The starters survived into halftime, down 48-42, and the third quarter looked more like a normal Nuggets game. Ten of their first 12 points were in the paint. They generated easy, close-range shots without much difficulty and only struggled to keep up at first because their defense wasn’t quite meeting their offense’s level.

“We’re gonna miss and make shots,” said Jamal Murray, who scored 22 points on 14 field goal attempts. “We can miss three in a throw. We can make three in a row. I think everybody’s seen everybody miss and seen everybody make. But it really just comes down to energy and effort, and how consistent we can be as a group on defense, and translating those turnovers that we force into fast break points.”