DENVER — Mile high? More like nearly a season low.
The story of this one was pretty simple. Take a back-to-back and mile-high altitude, throw in a dose of Nikola Jokic.
And you get a 124-101 rout at the hands of the Nuggets at Ball Arena.
The Nets (13-11) were coming off arguably their best victory of the season, spoiling the debut of Kevin Durant’s new Big 3 with Wednesday’s win in Phoenix.
But they looked predictably leggy the next night in Denver.
Against the defending champions, the Nets suffered through by far their worst offensive outing of the campaign.
They shot 41.1 percent overall, and 8-for-30 from 3-point range.
A team built to live and die by the long ball didn’t create enough of them, and didn’t hit nearly enough of the ones they did get.
Spencer Dinwiddie led the way with 17 points.
The Nets’ season-low scoring output is 99 points on Nov. 19 against Philadelphia, and they nearly failed to reach it until an Armoni Brooks 3-pointer in the final minute.
Jokic, the two-time NBA MVP, had a dominant triple-double with 26 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists. Jamal Murray, who had been listed as probable with bilateral ankle sprains, suited up and scored 16.
“Yeah that combination is proven to be lethal,” Nets coach Jacque Vaughn said of Jokic and Murray. “Even though Reggie Jackson has done a heck of a job of filling in when asked to. Jamal’s ability to score at all three levels [is huge].
“That was my first question to our analytics guys: Is he better at the rim? Is he better at midrange? He’s better at shooting 3? They were like, pretty darn good at all three levels. And so that challenge right there, just put something else that we have to worry about. His ability to play pick-and-roll with Jokic, just lethal. Ability to pass, they’d have a great connection together. So a great challenge.”
It was one that saw them fall short against Denver (17-9). Which, frankly, didn’t come as a huge shock.
Yes, the Nets had won seven of their last nine.
And they’d gotten downhill repeatedly in last season’s visit here to win 122-120. But that was on normal rest.
Since the 2018-19 season, opponents coming into Denver on the second game of a back-to-back had collectively gone just 8-27, per the Elias Sports Bureau.
Now, make that 8-28.
“Yeah, you got to have consistency. That’s kind of our word,” Vaughn had said. “And that’s got to be in our effort, our communication, our ability to it — the ball is going to go in for them, whether that’s Jokic — and our ability to get the ball out of the net and push the pace.
“Even though it’s a back-to-back, we’ve got to play to our strengths — and playing fast is one of our strengths. And so we’re going to try to capitalize on that.”
It didn’t happen. Whether it was the quality of their opponent or the lactic acid in their legs, the Nets weren’t capable of pushing any pace. Or hitting shots.
The last time Brooklyn was even was after Mikal Bridges’ 3-pointer knotted it at 17-all with five minutes left in the first quarter.
After that, they conceded a quick 9-2 run and never responded.
Jackson hit a pull-up 3-pointer to give Denver a 26-19 edge, and Brooklyn never had an answer, trailing the rest of the way.
The deficit steadily grew from there. It was 52-39 at the half, and ballooned.
Brooklyn trailed 90-67 after three, shooting 36.8 percent and 5 of 20 from 3-point range.
It swelled to as much as 28 in a garbage-time fourth quarter, before Vaughn emptied the bench and the reserves made a cosmetic run.
A Peyton Watson layup made it 101-73 with 9:04 to play, before the battle of the backups saw it get close and the final score less ugly than the game that preceded it.