Once again, the Denver Nuggets found their roster devoid of guards when they faced the New Orleans Pelicans in their second scrimmage. Unlike their first contest, Denver’s long lineup was too often exposed on the perimeter, it was delayed early, and it never recovered. Bol Bol once again had flashes of brilliance, but he also fought harder from the field. The final score doesn’t matter much in these exhibition games, but it was heavily tipped in favor of New Orleans.
Bol wasted no time picking up where he left off, opening the game with a three that barely tickled the back of the net. At first, the Nuggets found plenty of opportunities on the offensive glass, but struggled to defend themselves on the perimeter, all of which was not a surprise given the size of their starting lineup. The Pelicans knocked down several three from the start to fuel an 11-0 run and gained an early seven-point lead. The Nuggets called for timeout and calmed things down while the Pelicans struggled with turnovers. Bol knocked down three more, put together another block, and Denver returned at three. About 4 minutes to go, Bol and Jokic retired and the Nuggets’ offense quickly stopped. The Pelicans started a 12-0 run while Jokic was on the bench. He re-registered and Troy Daniels immediately hit a three, but the Nuggets were still far behind. After a quarter, Denver was dragged by thirteen.
The Nuggets’ offense was quite non-existent since Nikola was off the court once again. The Pelicans’ lead shot up to 19. Timeout Nuggets, Jokic re-inserted and immediately hit Daniels for an open shot. Jokic was the key to everything the Nuggets were doing and it looked like he was starting to remove the rust. Still, Denver couldn’t advance much in the Pelicans’ lead. With six minutes remaining, the lead was reduced to fifteen, so Denver slowly fragmented. However, it was evident that they were fighting without their guards. At the other extreme, the pelicans had cooled down, they weren’t getting as many open three-point looks either, so the lead continued to decline. Without Jokic and Bol on the court again for Denver, although they couldn’t go back to single digits. Overall, it was a much better defensive performance for Denver and, offensively, Jokic gave the Nuggets enough. After half, the Nuggets had fallen at eleven.
The Nuggets kept the gas on to open the second half and quickly were within half a dozen after Bol’s breakout layup. New Orleans responded and pushed the lead to double digits, while Bol made a couple of rookie errors. Denver called for a time-out and regained control, but the Pelicans responded with the race that Denver’s “Long Boi” lineup naturally struggled with. On the plus side, we were treated to a beautiful Jokic pass without looking at a slam dunk from Bol. The Pelicans started to get into their deepest bench players but still managed to run again since Denver had cooled off from the ground ( Jerami Grant was having a difficult night from the flat in particular). Mason Plumlee was one of the few guys who was consistently successful. He worked his way to a double double in the third quarter and kept the game from spinning out of control. Daniels knocked down three others with just under a minute to go and Denver lost by three-ten.
The fourth quarter was a full exhibition game to open, with neither team playing particularly well. Daniels still had no trouble taking down three, but there wasn’t much else working for the Nuggets. We were in the middle of Noah Vonleh transmitting the three-ball mode. Daniels continued to be Denver’s only real offense and would end with twenty-eight points on the night. Bol had also cooled off from the field. It was an extremely hard watch on the stretch. The NBA returned to the full twelve-minute quarters for this game, which certainly felt like a mistake by the two-and-a-half minute mark in the fourth quarter. Finally the bell rang and the pelicans achieved a fifteen-point victory.
