The Denver Nuggets had just gotten a big-time win against the Houston Rockets on NBA Cup night, and they were able to come back home the next day and face the Sacramento Kings. So far this season, the Kings have not played well, and they had just taken a 40-point loss earlier in the week to the Memphis Grizzlies. To add insult to injury, Domantas Sabonis is expected to miss the next three to four weeks with a meniscus tear.
This was basically set up to be an easy win for the Nuggets, but that didn't happen. Instead, the Nuggets lost 128-123, which came as a surprise to many. After the game, head coach David Adelman said the way the team played reminded him of when they lost earlier in the season to the Chicago Bulls, according to Brendan Vogt of DNVR Sports.
“David Adelman called this a ‘carbon copy' of the Chicago loss. Mentioned paint defense, transition defense, and turnovers as some of the deciding factors,” Vogt wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
The Nuggets won the first quarter, but they lost the next three quarters. It was a close game throughout the whole night, but at the end of the day, the Nuggets weren't able to execute at a high level. Nikola Jokic kept them in it throughout the matchup, finishing the game with 44 points, 13 rebounds, and seven assists.
On defense, the Nuggets had a hard time stopping the guards on the Kings, with Russell Westbrook and Dennis Schroder finishing with a team-high 21 points.
These types of games come and go when it comes to a long 82-game season, and the Nuggets may not even remember a loss like this in two weeks. They will remember when they face the Kings again, and they don't want the same result to happen.
