Tim Hardaway Jr. Calls on Nuggets to 'Take the Challenge' on Defense

The Denver Nuggets flipped a halftime deficit into a dominant 116-93 win over the Golden State Warriors on Sunday night at Ball Arena, extending their winning streak to six games.

The offense was clicking as usual for a team that leads the NBA in offensive rating, but it was the defensive turnaround that stood out most afterward.

"Just take the challenge. Take the challenge. Look yourself in the mirror," Tim Hardaway Jr. said postgame. "Whatever you got to have to get yourself going on that end of the floor. And we know we need to do that in order to compete with the best. So it's good that we're taking some good steps in that direction."

It was a tale of two halves in Denver.

The Warriors led 53-46 at the break, getting open looks from deep and exploiting backdoor cuts that the Nuggets were slow to cover.

Golden State looked like they had a real shot even without Stephen Curry.

Then halftime happened. David Adelman's message to his team about effort and execution has been a recurring theme this season, and it landed again on Sunday.

Denver held the Warriors to just 40 second-half points, and Golden State went 0-for-13 from three in the third quarter alone before managing only 19 points in the fourth.

Hardaway Jr. was right in the middle of that swing, scoring 10 of his 16 points during the third quarter while also picking up two steals.

He finished shooting 5-for-10 from the field and 4-for-8 from deep.

It would be hard to find a better value signing this year than Hardaway Jr. on his veteran's minimum deal.

Through 74 games, he is averaging 13.8 points per game while shooting 44.9 percent from the field and a career-best 40.9 percent from three, making him a legitimate Sixth Man of the Year candidate and one of the most important pieces on a roster that has dealt with injuries to just about every key player at some point.

But the defense has been a different story for Denver as a whole.

The Nuggets currently sit 21st in defensive rating at 117.1, barely an improvement from last season's 116.0 mark that had them 22nd.

For a team sitting at 48-28 and hoping to make a deep playoff run, that should raise some eyebrows.

A lot of it goes back to injuries.

Nikola Jokic missed 16 games with a knee injury, Aaron Gordon has been sidelined for over 40 games with hamstring problems, and Cameron Johnson dealt with knee issues of his own.

Building defensive chemistry is tough when the lineup keeps changing.

The talent is absolutely there. Sunday night proved that.

When Denver locks in defensively and combines it with the league's best offense, they look like a team that nobody wants to face in the postseason.

Jokic finished with 25 points, 15 rebounds, and eight assists, while Jamal Murray added 20 points and seven assists in a game that was essentially over by the fourth quarter.

But the Nuggets have shown this level of defense in short bursts all season before falling back into bad habits.

With six games left in the regular season, the question is whether Hardaway Jr.'s challenge to look in the mirror is something this group can carry with them into April and beyond.