The Denver Nuggets started the first half of their home and home with the Phoenix Suns at Ball Arena on Monday night. Both teams were shorthanded with the Nuggets missing Jamal Murray and the Suns missing Devin Booker. The other stars for both teams did their parts but the Nuggets had far more support, including a very solid night from their group of young reserves. Nikola Jokic and Michael Porter Jr. did most of the heavy lifting and that pair plus the young bench was a formula for a blowout as Denver wins 117-90.

Phoenix got an early lead through sharing the ball among their starters while Denver didn’t get a ton of easy shots but hit their threes to keep it close. Porter had a hot start to keep Denver afloat in the middle of the first but their collective defense was lacking. MPJ was relentless, an and-one put him up to twelve points in the quarter and tied the game at seventeen. Jalen Pickett and Hunter Tyson got minutes down the stretch of the first to leave Denver’s lineup as Jokic + the bench. There wasn’t a ton of offense outside of Joker but the defense was strong and that got the Nuggets a lead. After one quarter it was 27-26 Denver.

Perfectly placed pic.twitter.com/vqMcDZ6iEB

— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) December 24, 2024

There wasn’t much offense to speak of to start the second quarter but the bench unit’s defense continued to be impressive. They kept Phoenix from getting a point for over two minutes and made everything difficult. Pickett had a solid shift in particular for the reserve group and helped grow the lead to five before Russell Westbrook and Jokic checked back in (Jokic immediately buried a three). Shortly after they checked back in Jokic got stepped on by Jusuf Nurkic and looked to be in pain but stayed in the game. After that, Durant started getting to the free throw line to spark an 11-0 Phoenix run to get the lead back for the Suns briefly. Denver’s starters responded, Jokic started giving Nurkic want some refer to as “the business” and the Nuggets took back the lead. After two quarters they were up 55-51.

Braun throw down ⏬ pic.twitter.com/xI4ZtEJr39

— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) December 24, 2024

Jokic and Porter got right back to it to start the second half. After a Westbrook jam pushed the lead to eleven the Suns were forced to take an early timeout. Phoenix stopped the bleeding after that but weren’t able to make much headway on Denver’s lead either. Westbrook came alive and led an energetic shift for the starters that could have blown the game wide open if not for Bradley Beal. Aaron Gordon got in on the action by knocking down threes and suddenly the lead was up above twenty. Denver’s defense got a little bit lazy after that and Phoenix was able to work the lead back down for a little bit. They trimmed it back under fifteen but a strong close in the final minute put Denver back up big. After three they led 100-79.

TAKING THAT TO GO pic.twitter.com/r8WetN9thk

— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) December 24, 2024

Michael Malone opened the fourth with a DeAndre Jordan plus the kids lineup (Pickett, Julian Strawther, Tyson, Peyton Watson) and they struggled to score but once again had enough defense to hold the Suns at bay. Strawther knocked down some threes and was essentially the only one getting any points until Tyson, who was as energetic as ever, hustled up a rebound and then went coast to coast with a huge jam. The DJ + bench group continued to play solid minutes and eventually made time a factor as they held the twenty plus lead through the middle of the fourth. Malone emptied the bench and gave the two-way contract guys some game time with just under four minutes to go. They kept up the energy and Denver wins big, 117-90.

A third triple for Julian 🪣 pic.twitter.com/XFsyKg2fPI

— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) December 24, 2024

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Jokic and Porter was a two headed monster

Without Murray the Nuggets needed Porter to step up tonight and he did exactly that. He came out aggressive and wasn’t afraid to go shot for shot with an all-time great in Durant. He carried Denver through big chunks of the game and when he wasn’t, it was Nikola instead. Joker was in a bit of a scoring slump coming into tonight but that didn’t last. He led all scorers with thirty-two points and went four of six from the three point line. Nurkic looked completely helpless at times and got into foul trouble quickly trying to contain the three-time MVP. Denver got on runs with the help of some other guys too but Porter and Jokic were the players they could rely on consistently to get buckets when they needed them. It goes to show how valuable a guy like MPJ can be when he’s a focal point of the offense and playing off an all time great like Nikola.

The young bench gets it done

HUNTER WITH THE SLAM pic.twitter.com/J8FNmBxUPN

— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) December 24, 2024

Malone leaned on his young reserves heavily tonight, comprising his bench group entirely out of his steady veteran in Jordan, and players with less than three full seasons of NBA experience. It wasn’t always pretty on the offensive end but that group brought consistent energy and focus on defense to keep Phoenix from cutting into the lead. Denver’s pair of 2023 second round draft picks, Pickett and Tyson, both had nice games. You could see Pickett’s confidence grow as the game went on and he looked every bit of an NBA backup point guard tonight. Tyson didn’t score a ton but brought a ton of energy to the floor and helped shore up one of Denver’s biggest weaknesses: defensive rebounding. If those two guys can continue to put together solid rotation minutes it’s going to be an absolute boon for Denver.

The Nuggets are at the center of trade rumor season in the NBA, but coach Michael Malone says there’s no fire accompanying the smoke for now.

Asked on Monday how he manages the locker room when trade talks involving specific players become public, Malone highlighted how early in the season it is and referred to his conversations with general manager Calvin Booth.

“A lot of it is noise. I mean, I don’t know where it comes from,” Malone said. “You see different things that are out there, and you never want that stuff getting out there. But I’ve talked to Calvin, and Calvin’s had a good pulse on that stuff. And whenever that stuff is happening, he’s in touch with the guys and their agents to let them know what is real and what is not real. And as of right now as we are 25 games into the season, there’s nothing to that.”

The Athletic was first to report last week that Denver is interested in Zach LaVine, whose contract would require the Nuggets to include Michael Porter Jr. in a hypothetical trade for salary-matching purposes. The Nuggets have discussed the possibility of acquiring the two-time All-Star from Chicago this season, sources confirmed to The Denver Post, but they won’t be in any rush to move the 26-year-old Porter if the team is firmly in contention closer to the Feb. 6, 2025, trade deadline.

Entering a two-game Christmas week series with the Suns, the Nuggets (15-11) had won four of their last five, good for fifth place in the competitive Western Conference.

Porter had a quiet three-game road trip, averaging 11.7 points and not appearing in Malone’s closing lineup Sunday against the Pelicans. But he’s still averaging 18 points and seven rebounds this season, and shooting 38.5% from the 3-point line.

Nuggets backup big man Zeke Nnaji has been the other player most commonly associated with potential trades. His $8.9 million salary could also be an essential part of a potential trade for LaVine, who’s making $43 million this season. Under current collective bargaining agreement restrictions, Denver cannot take back more salary than it sends out in a trade. Porter’s current cap figure is $35.9 million.

“That’s where you worry about guys worrying about the wrong thing,” Malone said. “Just focus on what you can control, go out there and play your game, and help this team to the best of your ability. All of the other stuff takes care of itself. I think for years, our front office has done a great job of communicating with players if there is something so (that) there’s never a surprise. There’s never our guys being caught off guard. But that’s something that I think our front office has done an outstanding job of.”

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The Denver Broncos lost to the Los Angeles Chargers because of two significant reasons:

1. Poor coaching all around from the Broncos
2. One-sided refereeing that favored the Chargers deeply

I’m not going to spend a ton of time on point #2 as that’s just the NFL (and our own John Holmes goes into it at a far greater depth than I am capable of). You have to deal with bad ref jobs, though it honestly puzzles me to see such favoritism paid to the lowly Chargers. At the end of the day, good teams overcome this and the Broncos didn’t play good football.

The blame for this loss lays flatly at the feet of Sean Payton and Vance Joseph. Either of them could have called a more sensible game and clinched the win for the Broncos.

Offense

I absolutely loved the run offense dialed up early and often for the Broncos. Sean Payton was rotating backs in almost every play and it kept the Chargers guessing. The play calls were creative and utilized pulling guards and superb blocking.

Unfortunately, Payton decided to abandon his run game once again as the game wore on. This really numbs the mind when you factor in how well it was working.

The other problem with the offense was Payton not forcing more downfield plays. To be fair, this could have been superb coverage by the Chargers as our viewing angle isn’t great for seeing the secondary. That being said, the Chargers were down players in their secondary and I believe good coaching could have schemed up some advantage matchups.

Also, Payton’s decisions at the end of the first half didn’t cost us the game, but make no mistake, they were bad decisions. The Broncos had all of the momentum in the game. You don’t need to try to pass for a first down. Just run the ball three times and get the half over with. I don’t blame the player from special teams for his silly penalty. I blame the head coach for putting them in that position. It was just bad situational football and it cost the team 3 points and momentum.

Quarterbacks

Bo Nix had a pretty solid game at first glance. The problem is that his greatness was on display in the first half when the run game was potent. The second half was a different story as he kept dumping off the ball to his outlet receivers an inordinate amount of times instead of finding a way to push the ball downfield.

One of the big pluses Nix brings to the field is his ability to scramble. His second touchdown of the game was largely due to the threat he is as a runner. The defender on that side had to honor his ability to run and tried to play halfway between Nix and Burton to defend them both until help could get there. Nix made a great throw on the run for the easy touchdown.

The big area of improvement we saw for Nix in this game was his play against the blitz. He really didn’t handle it well and either didn’t have answers, or the answers he had were smothered by the opponents.

At the end of the day, Nix is still a rookie quarterback who has a lot to work on. I believe he’s nowhere near his ceiling yet. This game is in the long run going to be great for his development even if it stung a bit to lose the game.

Line

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I loved seeing our line block so well early. This was one of their better run-blocking games of the season. The line is still getting some pretty silly penalties that they need to clean up.

One stand out to me was seeing us run plays while pulling Ben Powers. He made some bruising blocks on the move that were impressive.

Running Backs

Audric Estime needs to be the starting back moving forward. He should have gotten more carries in this game as he was averaging over 5 yards per carry. He runs with power and has a knack for finding creases in the defense. It was pretty obvious to me that he was out when we wanted to pass the ball. If that is because of his pass blocking, he needs to level that skill up in a hurry.

Ben Watson got a surprising number of plays in this game. I wasn’t too encouraged by them, honestly. He missed a catch late and only had an average of 2.5 yards per carry.

Receivers

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It was nice to see Devaughn Vele get a touchdown catch off a really smoothly run route. I’m a fan of the young player and would have loved to see him get more targets than the measly 3 he got in the game.

Our #1 receiver on the day was Javonte Williams. He hauled in 7 catches for a whopping 29 yards. Averaging 4 yards per catch is not a winning formula.

Marvin Mimms, Jr. had an eye-popping reception as he scrambled for over 50 yards. This is another player that seems to be thriving, yet the offense doesn’t seem to find its way to him enough.

Defense

It is not new news to us that without Riley Moss, the Broncos don’t seem to be able to play man coverage well enough for Vance Joseph’s tastes. Instead, we’re playing a lot of zone coverages and getting beat often because of blown coverages.

This team needs to figure out what its identity is. I know it sounds good to hear Joseph talk about adjusting his defense to do what his players do best, but I question if that’s really what’s going on. Our inside linebackers especially were not up to the task of defending the middle against crossing routes. This weakness was abused throughout the game.

In the short term, Riley Moss getting healthy is going to be a shot in the arm for this defense. In the long term, this team needs to get more corners who can play man coverage on the outside.

Front 7

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Photo by RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images

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Zach Allen impressively wrecked a 3rd and 1 single-handedly. It was an example of superb timing mixed with raw power as he blasted into the backfield and got the TFL. He spent a good amount of time pressuring the pocket as he had 4 hurries in the game as well.

Justin Strnad had such a rough game this week. He badly over pursued from the edge on a run that gave up a 1st down. Later on a 3rd and 5 he was flat-footed and let the tight end cross without pursuit. He was just too slow recognizing that it was a pass. He even gave a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty by hitting a sliding Justin Herbert who had clearly given himself up. It was bone-headed and absolutely could have been avoided.

Drew Sanders had only one snap in the game and made it count. He came up the middle on a blitz that the Chargers didn’t account for and got a huge sack. Hopefully, we’ll get to see more of him in the last two weeks of the season as I feel like he’s got more ability at ILB than what we’re seeing on the field lately.

Secondary

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Kris Abrams-Draine made a game-breaking interception as the Chargers were driving late in the first half. He played with technique that my boy Chris Harris Jr. would be proud of and robbed the pass by breaking underneath the route. I’ve liked what I’ve seen from the rookie. He’s got a big career ahead of himself at corner in the NFL.

Brandon Jones led the team in tackles with 10 (not necessarily what you want from a safety). He was on McConkey one of his big crossing routes and blew the coverage. It wasn’t all bad from Jones, as he did have a really big pass defense late in the game on 3rd down.

P.J. Locke just awful coverage on the outside crashes too deep and lets his receiver go over the top for an easy touchdown. Locke is one of the weakest pass-defense players in the secondary. He’s a guy that keeps everything in front of him but with too much of a cushion and it leads to him oftentimes being late to a play.

Special Teams

Tremon Smith made a huge mistake in punt return coverage that led to 3 points for the Chargers off a free kick (which hasn’t been done in decades). He has to keep himself away from the returner on a fair catch.

Final Thoughts

It is starting to look a bit ugly for the Broncos as the season winds down. Yes, they control their destiny. Win one game and they make the playoffs.

This was a rough outing, though. This team looked like the team with poor coaching going up against a very well-coached team in the Chargers. I’m seeing a bit of hubris in Sean Payton’s play-calling and game decisions that I’m not a big fan of. It isn’t enough that you act like the smartest guy on the field. It is better when you just do the smarter actions and win the friggin game.