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DENVER — Ahead of Saturday's game, Denver coach Michael Malone said there was some worry about his team overlooking the Utah Jazz.
The Nuggets, after all, were coming off a win against the Boston Celtics in a matchup that could prove to be a Finals preview. There's a bit less excitement in playing a team that has gone 2-9 since the trade deadline.
"Tonight is different. You're playing against a team that's 5.5 games out of the play-in," Malone said. "These guys don't know who Brice Sensabaugh is."
Turns out, Malone didn't have much to worry about as the Nuggets led by as much as 39 in their 142-121 win over the Jazz. But they probably know who Sensabaugh is now, too.
The rookie who was making his second start scored 16 points on 7-of-11 shooting and had three assists. He finished 7-of-8 inside the 3-point line as he showcased an array of shots. He banked in a leaner, faded away for a contested midrange jumper and got to the rim a bit, too.
And in a game where the Jazz lost by 21 points and were down almost 40, the rookie managed to have a positive plus/minus (+6) — a third-quarter rally was the key to that. The Jazz went on a 27-8 run in the final 6:31 of the third quarter to cut Denver's lead to 14.
Yes, the game was already mostly over by the point but for the Jazz fans looking for silver linings, that run provided plenty. Especially since it was Sensabaugh and fellow rookie guard Keyonte George doing most of the damage.
George scored 21 of his 29 points in the second half and finished with six assists on the night. George was 10-of-17 from the field, including 5-of-8 from 3-point range.
"I think both of those guys, the best thing is they show a tremendous amount of confidence in themselves," Jazz coach Will Hardy said. "They have a tremendous amount of confidence in each other. The way they speak to each other during the game and encourage each other and kind of feed off each other, I think is a positive."
Unlike the Jazz, the Nuggets are rounding into postseason form. They've now won eight of their last nine games and are on the brink of getting back to the No. 1 seed.
In the first half, the Nuggets looked every bit like the defending champions; they scored 78 points on 29-of-44 shooting and 14-of-20 from 3-point range. They exploited every Utah mistake and breezed to a giant lead.
"I think one time I looked up and it was they're shooting like 80%," Sensabaugh said.
The young rookies got a front-row look at a championship-caliber team, and saw how far they still have to go to really make a mark in the league.
Sensabaugh and George both need to learn how to guard (something that can be said about the Jazz as a whole; again, the Nuggets had 78 points at halftime) and combined for nine turnovers. A couple of those giveaways stopped the Jazz from cutting into the Nuggets' lead even more in the third quarter. That's all part of the growing pains every player and team goes through.
The Nuggets took years to reach the pinnacle with their current core. They struck gold in the draft, developed stars, and then hit on the moves around the edges. That eventually won them a tile, but not before lottery-bound seasons, playoff heartache, injuries and failure.
The Jazz are still in the beginning phase of that journey. Have they struck gold in the draft? It's still too early to tell for sure, but maybe — just maybe — their two rookie guards can be part of a contending core in Utah down the road. George, for instance, has already partially modeled his game after one Nuggets star: Jamal Murray.
"I try to play the most like Jamal Murray as far as the type of shots that he gets," George said in November. "I think maybe not this year, but I feel like the upcoming years, I'll be able to play not exactly like him. But you'll be able to see more of a mid-range game being able to bump and just be confident with every shot that I shoot."
On Saturday, George got his points with his 3-point shot and drives to the basket. While also a score-first guard, Murray, who had 37 points Saturday, also uses much more off-ball movement and has a more complex offensive game (it helps to have Nikola Jokic directing traffic, too). If George can replicate some of that in future seasons, he becomes that much more of an offensive threat.
So even with Saturday proving to be a strong showing for the Jazz rookies — especially considering the result — it also came with baked-in lessons for the future.
"They both know that there's a lot of work to be done, though, to get to the level they want to get to," Hardy said. "To be a team it's competing for a championship, those guys are going to have to really up their level."
