Nikola Jokic career-high 56 points go to waste as Wizards end 16-game losing streak vs. Nuggets

WASHINGTON — Asked to share the biggest challenges of coaching a game without multiple starters Saturday night, a straight-faced Michael Malone said, “Making sure I don’t play Nikola 48 minutes.”

When the comment fell on deaf ears, he felt the need to clarify.

“That was a joke,” he said, banging on the table in front of him like a drum set.

It was no joke three hours later, when Jokic was seated on the bench with 47 points through three quarters and the shorthanded Nuggets were struggling to tread water against an opponent on a 16-game losing streak.

Jokic finished with a career-high 56, but Denver spared the Washington Wizards from their misery anyway with a 122-113 loss at Capital One Arena. The three-time MVP single-handedly chipped away at a 15-point deficit in the third, getting it to six before earning some rest. It was back to 13 by the time he checked back in. His 38 field goal attempts were also a career high.

“You can’t wait in this league,” Malone said. “I don’t care if a team is 20-3 like Cleveland or has lost 16 in a row like Washington. If you try to wait to start playing hard in this league, what happened tonight is exactly what’s gonna happen to you.”

Without Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon, the Nuggets (11-10) didn’t get a secondary scoring contribution of more than 18 points (Julian Strawther). They were outscored by 33 from behind the 3-point line, with Jokic making three of their five 3s. Jordan Poole led the Wizards with 39 points in their first win since October.

Halftime marked the exact endpoint of the first quarter of this season. Maybe that was fitting. Most of the Nuggets, with the obvious exception of Jokic, had neglected to make an appearance. He had 24 points on 10-of-12 shooting, which included a missed full-court shot. Nobody else on the roster was in double digits.

“The last couple games were really bad for us. We are really going in the wrong direction. But I think it’s everybody’s fault. It’s not just the coach’s fault,” Jokic said after Malone took accountability for what he called poor effort. “It’s not his fault that we cannot make shots. It’s not his fault that we don’t communicate. Of course, there is a little bit — it’s I think on the whole (team) collectively.”

As a team, the Nuggets were out-shooting Washington by 11% because they made 23 of 30 shots inside the arc. But they made only one 3-pointer and turned it over 12 times. When Jokic buried a long-range jumper with 57 seconds left in the half, it marked the latest point in a game that any NBA team has made its first three this season, breaking a record previously held by Denver (two days earlier in Cleveland).

Perimeter defense continued to be a disaster. Poole alone made five 3s in the half for 21 points. The Nuggets lost shooters off-ball. They committed a three-shot foul 0.7 seconds before the buzzer.

They chipped away in the third. Well, Jokic did, mostly. But every time it got close, a defensive breakdown or a rebounding lapse followed. The Wizards made consecutive second-chance 3s to keep Denver at arm’s length late in the frame, forcing a Malone timeout down 91-83 despite 40 of his team’s points coming from Jokic.

Washington kept beating the Nuggets to its own misses down the stretch, finishing with 15 offensive rebounds that turned into 16 points.

“I learned in CYO basketball, St. Agnes, long shots equal long rebounds. And the number of times the other team shoots a long shot and everybody runs into the restricted circle is mind-boggling to me. It doesn’t make any sense. And we do it over and over and over again. … That’s not gonna allow you to get over the hump when you start playing defense.”

With the Nuggets headed to Atlanta for a back-to-back Sunday, Murray, Gordon and Dario Saric were each ruled out in the last two hours before opening tip. Christian Braun played despite dealing with a quad injury that had popped up.

“Jamal, I think he, in the Cleveland game, maybe aggravated his hamstring. … During the course of a game, adrenaline flowing, didn’t really feel that bad during the game,” Malone said pregame. “Was able to finish. And then obviously after the game, flying, it stiffens up.”

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