The Denver Nuggets dropped to 23-12 in 2025-26 following a 127-115 loss to the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center on Sunday. The Nets, who have now improved to 11-22, led by as many as 22 points on the night, and Nuggets head coach David Adelman ripped his team in his postgame press conference.
“They were the aggressors from the start,” Adelman said. “Our energy was lackluster, embarrassing to start this game. I thought we picked it up as it went, but the game was out of control at that point. They started feeling good about themselves. Guys started making threes, 41 in the third quarter really speaks to that.
“But you can’t come out with an unprofessional approach, and we did,” Adelman continued. “Put ourselves up against it. So, this is the NBA. Everybody can get hot… We can have all these excuses about guys just getting back, the rotation’s different, all that crap, but the bottom line is we were not ready to play.
“And when you’re not ready to play, things like this happen, starts like that happen, and eventually a third quarter like that happened,” Adelman added. “So, it’s a very disappointing performance from our guys.”
That is damning. The Nuggets had actually gotten a huge boost for this game, with Aaron Gordon and Christian Braun returning from lengthy absences. The timing couldn’t have been much better, as Nikola Jokic had just hyperextended his knee on Dec. 29.
These Jokic-less Nuggets were expected to take care of business against a Nets team that had lost three in a row coming into the contest, but they didn’t. The Nets led 59-52 at the half, and then had a 41-point third quarter that all but ended the game as a contest.
Adelman had been praising the professionalism of his players for much of this season, but they greatly disappointed him here.
“I would just say that this is the first time all year I felt like that,” Adelman stated. “It was the first time I walked in at halftime, it just felt like the effort wasn’t good enough. We were only down seven. So yeah, it just was a disconnected group to start.”
The score was close at halftime, but Adelman wasn’t too happy. His players didn’t come in with the right approach and ended up getting punished in the third quarter.
Nets forward Michael Porter Jr. haunted his former team in his first game against them. Porter had 27 points (8-17 FG), 11 rebounds, five assists, and one block against the Nuggets. He had missed the Nets’ last two games with an illness, but he wasn’t going to miss this one.
Porter, whom the Nuggets had traded to the Nets last summer, said he had circled this game in his calendar. He still has a lot of love for his former teammates, but a victory against them might well have felt sweeter than against most others.
Jamal Murray led the Nuggets here with 27 points (11-23 FG), six rebounds, and 16 assists. Tim Hardaway Jr., meanwhile, had 26 points, and they were the only two to get any praise from Adelman.
“[Hardaway] was impactful, one of the positives tonight, too,” Adelman said. “I mean, Tim has 26 points, plays out the game, veteran player, never stopped competing. And then Jamal was 16 assists, getting doubled every time down. So, those guys were impressive as the game went on, but just as a group collectively, not good enough.”
The Nuggets take on the Philadelphia 76ers next at Wells Fargo Center on Monday at 8:30 PM ET. With this being the second night of a back-to-back, the likes of Gordon and Braun might not play. Adelman also stated he’d have to be careful with Murray, who played nearly 40 minutes against the Nets. If these three are out, a third straight loss is very much on the cards.
