Game 34: Utah Jazz @ Denver Nuggets 9:00 PM ET

[Powder Blue]

Lyles having another good game, why Plumlee is starting ahead of him baffles me.

Points off the bench maybe?

[skywalker33]

Obviously he's in a poor shooting slump, but how's this going to affect his futufre contract, does it steer suitors away with his up-n-down performances ?

[HoopsMalone]

These ejections are getting ridiculous. Call the FOUL refs, then you dont have to eject the player who got fouled

[skywalker33]

While I was impressed by Donovan Mitchell, I did expect a little more fire from him against the team that traded him away. Lyles played well against his former teammates.

[NuggetsWY]

A very nice and very impressive win. I was certainly smiling.

Utah played rather rough and the Nuggets dealt with it fairly well. More than once, I noticed a Jazz player set a pick and actually grab the Nuggets trying to go over or under the pick. If I were an opponent, that is how I'd play the Nuggets until they can prove that it doesn't affect them. This made the game particularly satisfying in my mind.

Jokic - sorry to say, but he could have avoided that ejection. There was no reason to be fighting for position with the ball not near in a game where the Nuggets had a large lead.

Barton's defense seemed to have several major lapses in this game. Why didn't Malone have him covering Rubio? Rubio isn't a very good shooter. Why does Malone continue to play Barton at PG? He prefers to shoot and is pretty good at it (sometimes). In the middle of the 4th quarter there was a 2-on-1 where Barton had the ball. He held onto it all the way. That he missed was not significant, or at least not as significant to me as the fact that true PGs would have passed the ball to the other player unless the PG himself was left wide open. It's a mind set and he does not think like a PG.

Did anyone notice that Murray was really hot in the 1st quarter and barely took a shot in the 2nd & 3rd quarters? He did get some shots in the 4th quarter. Why would this happen? It just seems strange. I'd say it was because Malone didn't call any plays for him, but it doesn't seem like Malone calls a lot of plays.

[NuggetsWY]

What the hell is wrong with Malone? He has Plumlee playing the Jokic role with Jokic playing off the ball. This guy needs fired before he ruins Jokic.

Jokic and Plumlee cannot play together, I don't get Malone either. Just please don't play them together, please Malone you **** knucklehead.

Jokic and Nurkic could not play together, so they traded Nurkic. Maybe Malone is trying to prove that Jokic & Plumlee can't play together. It makes no sense when we have an extensive line of PFs to play Plumlee at PF. But that's just my opinion.

I will also point out the one of Malone's sound bytes said he wouldn't play someone if they weren't producing. If Barton is having a poor shooting night and his defense is his normal weak point, why is Malone playing him?

As for ruining Jokic, I would suggest people pay attention to what Rebel just said. In my opinion, Mudiay just might make a good player and if so, then it will probably be on another team. Only then will we know if Malone ruined him.

Except for Mudiay, young players get little playing time and they develop very slowly. Murray is an example. He was a PG in high school and on the Canadian National Team. At Kentucky they moved him to SG because they had the very short Ulis. Malone used him almost exclusively as a SG last year and this year, Murray is still only getting a few minutes per game at PG. As soon as Barton is in the game, Murray is no longer a PG. How will he develop as a PG, if he does not get PT?

[psimanic1]

Wouldn't it be great if they could surprise us and win against MIN today?

[MidMountain]

What the hell is wrong with Malone? He has Plumlee playing the Jokic role with Jokic playing off the ball. This guy needs fired before he ruins Jokic.

Jokic and Plumlee cannot play together, I don't get Malone either. Just please don't play them together, please Malone you **** knucklehead.

The results of the last three games disagree with you.

[NuggetsWY]

What the hell is wrong with Malone? He has Plumlee playing the Jokic role with Jokic playing off the ball. This guy needs fired before he ruins Jokic.

Jokic and Plumlee cannot play together, I don't get Malone either. Just please don't play them together, please Malone you **** knucklehead.

The results of the last three games disagree with you.

It seems to me that our players are winning in spite of our coach. We have some great talent, and they are learning how to make things work.

[MidMountain]

Jokic and Plumlee cannot play together, I don't get Malone either. Just please don't play them together, please Malone you **** knucklehead.

The results of the last three games disagree with you.

It seems to me that our players are winning in spite of our coach. We have some great talent, and they are learning how to make things work.

Malone gets all of the blame around here, but none of the credit. When they lose it's Malone's fault, not the players. The last three games feature dominant defense and it's the players winning in spite of the coach? Malone has the team playing well. I don't get the hate.

[NuggetsWY]

The results of the last three games disagree with you.

It seems to me that our players are winning in spite of our coach. We have some great talent, and they are learning how to make things work.

Malone gets all of the blame around here, but none of the credit. When they lose it's Malone's fault, not the players. The last three games feature dominant defense and it's the players winning in spite of the coach? Malone has the team playing well. I don't get the hate.

IMO he is great at sound bytes but he doesn't usually do what he says he will do and he has thrown players under the bus - plus, the Nuggets tend to do poorly coming out of timeouts and at end of games - and that's just the beginning of the list of complaints some have (myself included).

[skywalker33]

Lyles having another good game, why Plumlee is starting ahead of him baffles me.

Points off the bench maybe?

I can agree with this for the most part, however with Plumlee's finger issue it seems it would be better to allow him to heal