On Monday night, the Denver Nuggets faced an injury-depleted Toronto Raptors squad. Scottie Barnes, Chris Boucher, Gary Trent Jr., Immanuel Quickley and Jakob Poeltl were all sidelined for the Canadian franchise due to injuries.
While no matchup should ever be overlooked, the Nuggets seemed to come out of the gates sluggishly. Denver's defense in the first half was horrible, to say the least. They were essentially letting the Raptors fire at will. At one point, Toronto even had a 22-point lead. The Nuggets went into the half down 51-68.
But no opposing team should feel comfortable with any sort of lead against the defending NBA Champions. Despite being down in double digits, the Nuggets never gave up. They would eventually overcome the large deficit and come back to win the game, 125-119.
The Nuggets usually give out a ‘Defensive Player of the Game’ chain to one of their players, but Denver was so poor in the first half, head coach Michael Malone gave out two ‘Defensive Player of the Half’ chains 😅
Jamal Murray was given one and Nikola Jokic was given the… pic.twitter.com/jjMIAfkdYW
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) March 12, 2024
According to head coach Michael Malone, the Nuggets' confidence and belief never wavered in their comeback attempt.
“For our guys, I don’t think there is any doubt at all,” Malone told ClutchPoints. “I think that we know that we are always within striking distance when we defend as well as I know we can. … I think the confidence comes from experience. Whether it’s at Golden State, or any game you go back and look at, we’ve come back and won games before. There’s never any doubt, there’s never any quit.”
The Nuggets comeback was powered by another standout performance from Nikola Jokic. Against the Raptors, the Serbian big man had 35 points, 17 rebounds, and 12 assists. This marks Jokic's 126th career triple-double.
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