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While the Los Angeles Lakers were celebrating their first win after six tries, Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets were left reflecting on what they did wrong. As their head coach Michael Malone said, though, there's a lot.
Speaking to reporters after the brutal 121-110 defeat, Malone got brutally honest on their shortcomings. He noted Michael Porter Jr.'s foul troubles, Jamal Murray's minutes restrictions and Bones Hyland's absence as contributing factors in the defeat, but there's one more aspect they could have controlled and done a better job in doing: defense.
“We have yet to play any defense in a road game. … We let guys get comfortable,” Malone said, per Mike Singer of the Denver Post.
True enough, defense has been a major issue for the Nuggets, and that definitely continued against the Lakers. Overall they rank 24th in the league in defensive rating at 115.7, but that number gets worse in road games. Denver is the worst defensive team on the road at 123.6.
It's definitely an issue Michael Malone, Nikola Jokic and the rest of the Nuggets need to address sooner rather than later. They are still 4-3 on the year despite the defeat, but losing to one of the worst offensive teams in the Lakers is a bad sign for the team.
Denver plays the Oklahoma City Thunder next, and sure enough, they'll look to bounce back and correct their defensive mistakes. They have to be careful, though, with the Thunder brimming with confidence and looking deadlier than ever with Shai Gilegous-Alexander leading the way.
