That’s just not a championship team quarter from the nuggets. They have one big problem. It’s not the defense. It’s not the fact that they don’t have a second bonafide all star. It’s that they don’t know when to just ride Jokic.
This is happened a bunch of times this year. The ball is moving and role players are shooting well, then things dry up. Instead of just feeding Jokic in those situations, Aaron Gordon and Murray are shooting heat checks. Offense completely fell apart early in that quarter and the nuggets didn’t run one action to get Jokic a post up.
That’s on Malone, Murray and Jokic. This is the playoffs, you can’t just waste 15 point leads like that.