"I have to find a unit that will actually do it, compete at a higher level. To me, that was the game. We let struggles offensively, missed shots, turn into horrendous defense. I told them after the game that's just inexcusable."
"It's very funny to me that Adelman's solution, 30 hours later, was to remove Valanciunas from the bench unit not by packing him into a large box and shipping him to Kamchatka, but by ramming him into the starting lineup. It speaks to Utah's proficiency in the tanking arts that the Nuggets, who are one of four 38-win teams in the West and are only three games above the dreaded play-in, would try such a thing."
The Denver Nuggets experimented with a new starting lineup featuring Jonas Valanciunas alongside Nikola Jokic against the Utah Jazz. The Jazz countered by assigning Kyle Filipowski to Valanciunas and leaving Elijah Harkless, a 6-foot-3 second-year player on a two-way contract, to guard Jokic. Despite Harkless being significantly undersized, Jokic had an unusually poor performance. Coach David Adelman made this lineup change after Denver's bench unit collapsed Sunday against Minnesota, turning a nine-point lead into a seven-point deficit. Valanciunas had been a liability in that game with a 152 defensive rating and minus-15 in under 10 minutes, prompting Adelman to move him to the starting lineup rather than benching him entirely.
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