KISSIMMEE, Fla. — The Denver Nuggets are in a 3-1 hole, but they aren’t focusing on the deficit. They know that they need three consecutive wins to beat the Utah Jazz and advance to the next round, but they need just one to start to shake things up.
“We’re not looking at three wins,” Paul Millsap said on Monday. “We’re looking at one win.”
On Tuesday, the Nuggets and Jazz will face off in Game 5 of the best-of-seven series, and though the Nuggets are watching film and analyzing all the details of the games in order to pinpoint areas in which they can improve and be more impactful, there is one area that was the focus of Monday’s practice.
“The physicality of the game has to step up,” Millsap said.
To that end, Denver head coach Mike Malone said the Nuggets spent an hour of their practice time solely on physicality drills, hoping that the message would sink in so that his team can reap the benefits on Tuesday night.
“When I think of physicality, I think of at the point of the screen, I think of when the shot goes up, I think about offensively owning your spot, being able to catch the ball where you want to and not getting pushed out to the perimeter,” Malone said.
While the Nuggets believe that their defense stepped up in Game 4 and applied more pressure to the Jazz, they still saw the Utah squad playing comfortably. So the main objective for Game 5 is to make the Jazz uncomfortable on both ends of the floor with increased pressure and physicality.
A lot of that pressure is going to need to come in pick-and-roll defense, an area that Malone says has been poor for the Nuggets throughout the series.
“They’ve got a really good roll threat in Gobert and really good ball handlers and playmakers coming off the screens,” Millsap said. “They’re precise about it. They’ve got really good veteran players that try to make the right play every single time. When you’re disciplined like that it’s going to cause problems. We’ve got to do something different.”
Millsap went on to say that the Nuggets have come up with a game plan and different looks that he thinks will be successful against the Jazz, though he didn’t elaborate on exactly what the game plan entails.
As far as adjustments go, Monte Morris and Jerami Grant started in place of Michael Porter Jr. and Torrey Craig in Game 4, to results that Malone said he loved.
“It was a great adjustment,” he said. “We got off to a great start.”
It’s likely that because of the success of that starting unit that Malone will opt to start them again in Game 5. The problem, Malone said, is that as soon as the Nuggets went to their bench the lead they had built deteriorated.
“Hopefully our guys understand that tomorrow night is win or go home. We have to approach it with that kind of mindset.” — Denver coach Mike Malone
There’s not much that the Nuggets can do to strengthen their bench. But, there could be hope in that department for Denver. Guard Gary Harris, who has yet to play in the NBA bubble, was upgraded to from “out” to “questionable” on the injury report for Tuesday’s game.
Though the guard is one of the Nuggets more accomplished perimeter defenders and would give the team a little more depth if he is able to play, Harris also hasn’t played in months and would likely be limited and at least somewhat rusty, so the Nuggets can’t put all of their eggs in that basket.
In the end, Malone agrees that the Nuggets just need one win to get back into this series, but that his team has to realize the gravity of what lies ahead in Game 5.
“Hopefully, our guys understand that tomorrow night is win or go home,” Malone said. “We have to approach it with that kind of mindset.”