Competing on the main floor at Ball Arena for the first time since their Game 7 playoff heartbreaker, the Nuggets pushed their starters deep into the game against the Phoenix Suns’ reserves Sunday night in a preseason contest.

The result was not the expected one: a 118-104 loss for Denver, which fell to 0-3 this preseason after shooting 33% from 3-point range to Phoenix’s 46%. Next up is a home matchup with the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday night.

Up-tempo mayhem

Every NBA coach, every year, seems to make it a preseason goal to play faster. Michael Malone is no exception. But it’s not just talk so far. The Nuggets have made a concerted effort in these exhibition games to get the ball up the floor at a more frenetic pace, be it after a live-ball change of possession or via Nikola Jokic recklessly testing out 40-foot sideline inbound passes from the backcourt.

The Nuggets haven’t exactly reached the part of the plan where they’re consistently capitalizing on their transition chances. Their decision-making Sunday got sloppy, and they missed quite a bit at the rim. (The official box score had them at 4-for-10 shooting on fast breaks through three quarters.) Jokic turned it over six times, often experimenting with the sort of ridiculous plays that will make for irresistible highlights if he executes them in the regular season.

Overall, the process is there. Denver generated a fair number of decent looks by running the floor, and if nothing else, preseason games like these provide valuable conditioning workouts — an area where Malone thinks his team needs to make a lot of progress. He ran four of his five starters until the end of the third quarter, resting Jamal Murray after halftime. By the third, defensive breakdowns were becoming an issue, with the Suns blowing by tired Nuggets players.

Porter continues to stand out

Michael Porter Jr. showed up to training camp in excellent physical shape, teammates and coaches have vouched. His preseason has showcased that strength and assertiveness while serving as a reminder of just how special an offensive player he can be.

Within seconds after Jokic won the opening tip, the ball found Porter in the corner, where he drove confidently for a dunk. His off-ball movement throughout the night was excellent, allowing him to score as a cutter or to shoot in rhythm around dribble handoffs. He’s putting the ball on the floor and looking to shoot, but rarely forcing it. And Denver seemed intent on running a lot of plays for him Sunday, including one creative baseline out-of-bounds design in which Porter floated the inbound pass to Aaron Gordon in the lane, ran around a Jokic screen and buried an open 3 off the catch from Gordon.

Porter finished the night with 21 points, matching Jokic for a team-high, on 8-of-13 shooting. Most notably, he was 5 of 7 from inside the arc.

Weirdest lineup award goes to…

In the first quarter, Malone tried out Murray, Russell Westbrook, Julian Strawther, Dario Saric and Jokic together in one of the most peculiar lineups yet. The Nuggets seem interested in trying out Westbrook and Murray in lineups together this season, a combination that resembles what they tried last year with Murray next to Reggie Jackson.

Denver is also messing with creative pick-and-roll variations involving Jokic. On Sunday, those included a four-five pick-and-roll from the left wing, with Saric as the ball-handler — and an inverted one between Jokic and Westbrook out of a timeout, with Westbrook as the screener. That one resulted in an alley-oop from Jokic to his future Hall-of-Fame teammate.

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Originally Published: October 13, 2024 at 8:59 p.m.