Nuggets rookie Spencer Jones talked about the challenges of guarding James Harden after his successful outing doing so on Wednesday.
The Denver Nuggets put together a convincing 130-116 win over the struggling Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday, led by an otherworldly 55-point triple-double from three-time MVP Nikola Jokic. Jokic made 18-of-23 attempts from the field overall and grabbed 12 rebounds to help Denver secure the win.
While Jokic got some offensive help from Aaron Gordon (18 points) and Jamal Murray (15 points), one of the more underrated efforts for the team on Wednesday came from rookie Spencer Jones on the defensive end. Jones made his lone field goal attempt from beyond the arc to finish with 3 points, but his effort guarding James Harden made all the difference.
Harden finished with 23 points on 6-of-15 shooting, but he shot just 1-of-6 from the field in the second half after Jones drew the assignment. Jones explained the process of guarding Harden after the game, emphasizing how difficult it is to keep the future Hall of Famer contained.
“You could tell how difficult it is with the first couple of possessions, where I foul him and everything,” Jones said. “He’s just so good at drawing your hands. If you try to hand check, he's going to sweep through. I had to learn to be a little bit less physical because usually I am up in guys' grill and being really handsy.”
Finding The Help
Jones also noted the importance of forcing a player of Harden’s strength and caliber into help defense, which the rookie excelled at on Wednesday. Jones finished the game +15 off the bench, while Harden was -26 overall.
“For a guy like (Harden), with how strong he is, you’ve just got to want to force him downhill into some help,” Jones said. “You're honestly never really playing them one-on-one. I know I got help on the back side and so it's really just using that. The guys who communicate behind me on which way to send them and stuff like that. I trust them. It's really a team effort.”
Jones is all but guaranteed to see an increase in minutes in the upcoming stretch after it was reported on Friday that starting guard Christian Braun will miss at least six weeks after suffering an ankle injury during the first quarter of Wednesday’s game. Jones excelled in his minutes increase after the injury on Wednesday and now has further chances to cement himself.
The Nuggets are back in action against the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Target Center in Minneapolis on Saturday, with tip-off scheduled for 7 p.m. CST.