Nikola Jokic after Nuggets’ season-opening loss: “We are not a good shooting team”

Volume from 3-point range wasn’t a problem for the Nuggets on opening night at least.

Efficiency sure was.

Denver missed 32 of 39 outside shots in a 102-87 season-opening loss to the Thunder on Thursday night, statistically crowning the worst 3-point shooting game of the Michael Malone era, which is entering its 10th year.

There are only 12 games in Malone’s coaching tenure — regular season or playoffs — in which the Nuggets shot the 3-pointer worse than their 17.9% clip Thursday. They attempted 30 or more 3s in only four of those games. They attempted 35 or more in only one: Nov. 14, 2015, in Phoenix. That was Malone’s 10th game in Denver. The Nuggets were 6 for 35 (17.1%) that day.

Accounting for volume and success, the 2024-25 opener was as bad as any game he has coached. And even though the Nuggets are only one game into the season, their superstar was conclusive about their current reality.

“We are not a good shooting team,” Nikola Jokic said. “Except probably Mike (Porter Jr.) and then Jamal (Murray). All of us are kind of streaky — not streaky, but you know, just average shooters. So, yeah. But we have something else. We can probably be better, have an advantage in some other things on the floor.”

Not even the caveats that he outlined were caveats in this loss, which is part of the reason Malone himself wasn’t rushing to any conclusions afterward. After a dazzling preseason, Porter shot 3 for 10 from 3-point range. After a less-than-dazzling summer, Murray shot 2 for 5.

They went cold with Oklahoma City’s refrigerator magnets stuck to them. Porter’s shots appeared rushed and forced for the first time since the playoffs, when Minnesota’s similarly elite defenders made him work for every inch of space. The entire Thunder rotation can guard at that level, not just Lu Dort and Alex Caruso. But Dort and Caruso are one nightmare of a tandem to lead the charge.

“They’re really good at pushing you out, and then your actions are a little messed up,” new starter Christian Braun said, while emphasizing that he liked the shots the Nuggets were generating, even if they weren’t converting. “We know those will fall. I don’t think that’s where we lost the game.”

Braun is correct. Denver ended up taking a fair number of wide-open looks. The problem is, those looks were often a product of reputation. Most of the Nuggets’ perimeter players haven’t established one yet to warrant Porter- or Murray-caliber respect. Oklahoma City happily sent double-teams to Jokic on every post-up and lived with the results.

Denver’s trio of young rotation players combined for an 0-for-9 night beyond the arc. Russell Westbrook was 1 for 6.

He took a calm, unperturbed view of the game as a whole, praising the Thunder, praising the Nuggets’ defense even more and focusing on productive lessons from the defeat.