The Denver Nuggets looked a lot more like themselves in a 117-106 preseason win over the Utah Jazz, and it started on the defensive end.
After a rough opening quarter, Denver’s starters tightened things up in the second and flipped the game with a 41-point frame that ended with a net positive 13. That stretch featured Aaron Gordon and Cameron Johnson taking over offensively, but the bigger shift came from the way the Nuggets defended. The starters were making life harder for Utah, and that pressure carried over into better offense on the other end.
The first quarter was shaky. Denver gave up too many straight-line drives into the paint, which led to either kick-out threes or easy lob finishes.
It was the kind of defensive sequence that looked far too familiar. But the second quarter brought a different energy.
Christian Braun came up with a strong block, Jamal Murray added one of his own, and Murray also picked off a steal after a Nikola Jokic deflection, setting up a Johnson dunk in transition.
Jokic and the Nuggets began trapping the Jazz more often than they had earlier, and that extra burst on defense seemed to unlock the offense. Denver’s starters went into the break having played their best defense of the preseason so far, and if they can keep that level up, they’ll be a much tougher team to deal with once the games start counting.
Offensively, the second quarter was just as encouraging. Denver’s starters found a rhythm without relying heavily on Jokic and Murray, who combined for only 10 of the team’s 65 first-half points. Johnson scored 10 in the half, Braun added 5, and Gordon was the one who really set the tone with 13 in the quarter and 18 by halftime.
Gordon looked like his old self, and that mattered. He wasn’t carrying any obvious lingering injury concerns, and he gave the Nuggets the kind of jolt they needed. With the starters sitting out the entire second half, the first-half surge was enough to put Denver in control and leave them with something to build on.
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