LOS ANGELES — The Nuggets defeated the Clippers 103-90 in their preseason finale Thursday night with the starters playing into the second half. Los Angeles rested its starters after playing them Tuesday.
Here are three takeaways from the win.
Bones on a mission
The Nuggets somewhat unwittingly allowed this to turn into the Bones Hyland revenge game for a bit … until he had to be helped off the court with a leg injury with 5:36 remaining in the third quarter, anyway.
Before tip, Michael Malone called Denver’s transition defense “embarrassing” in the first Clippers game, which he watched remotely. Hyland compounded the problem a few times, buzzing from end to end with the audacity of his new teammate Russell Westbrook. A number of Nuggets struggled to cover him when he had the ball. Malone called a timeout, fuming, in the second quarter after one of Hyland’s easy transition buckets off a Denver miss. The ex-Nugget shot 10 for 15 with 25 points, seven rebounds and six assists.
Malone thought the defense was solid other than the second quarter, but transition defense still will be an emphasis going into the regular season.
Testing out backups at the three
On a few occasions, Hyland’s night also accentuated the Nuggets’ struggles to rebound the ball this preseason, another alarm bell for Malone. None of the bench players have been particularly efficient on the glass, and Malone wants to see more accountability not just from his bigs, but from wings and guards.
That may have been part of the equation as the Nuggets toggled with backup threes Thursday. (Michael Porter Jr. remained out with an ankle injury.) For the first time this preseason, Hunter Tyson replaced Justin Holiday alongside the usual starters in the first unit.
Tyson seemed to grow into the game throughout the first half. He passed up a couple of perimeter shots early but gradually started finding good spots. He slashed to the rim from the top of the key for a dime from Nikola Jokic and a layup, threw himself on the floor after a loose ball, attempted to take a charge (to no avail) and attacked from the wing for an and-one late in the half. Then in a win for the transition D, his active hands caused a Hyland drive-and-kick to deflect off a Clipper and out of bounds.
When Holiday eventually subbed in, he did an impressive job stepping up to guard bulkier players on switches such as Nicolas Batum and Kenyon Martin Jr., who couldn’t score backing Holiday down at one point. His quiet preseason on the boards and within the flow of Denver’s offense continued until he picked it up in the second half and made his last three shot attempts. Holiday finished the five exhibitions with 22 total points (8 of 23 from the field) and seven total rebounds in 103 minutes of playing time.
Watson started the second half along with the starters and flashed his rebounding potential with a fierce put-back dunk, but he, Tyson and Holiday still only finished with 11 rebounds combined with high usage.
Joker just wants to have fun
Jokic feasted on the Clippers bench players. He seemed to be testing out his more challenging outlet passes and his alley-oop chemistry throughout the first half. One outlet sailed out of bounds, but he completed two successful lobs to Aaron Gordon, one to Jamal Murray for an alley-oop layup from near midcourt, and even tried one to Reggie Jackson (who did not attempt to leave his feet).
The starters went into the third quarter like they did last Sunday at home. If Malone had stretched Jokic just a little longer, the two-time MVP would have finished off a rare preseason triple-double. Instead he settled for 25 points on 15 shots, 14 boards and eight assists.
