David Adelman after Denver’s 22-turnover opener: ‘The open man wins,’ and the other Nuggets have to ‘step up’ for Jokić and Murray

David Adelman did not spend much time on the shooting after Denver’s season opener. Nikola Jokić went 5-of-19, Jamal Murray went 2-of-11, and the Nuggets shot 38 percent in a 96-84 loss at Oklahoma City on Thursday night. What bothered Adelman more was what his team did with the ball when the shots stopped falling.

“It was going to come down to details,” he said. “The turnovers were a big deal because they shot 13 more field goal attempts. That’s what happens when you don’t turn the ball over. So just a sloppy night from us, especially in the second half. Just have to clean it up.” Denver had 22 turnovers to the Thunder’s 12, and Oklahoma City scored 21 points off them. The Nuggets led 48-44 at halftime and were outscored 52-36 after the break.

‘The open man wins’

Adelman tied the turnovers to the offense getting stuck once Jokić and Murray could not get going. “Sometimes you have a bad shooting night, the guys try to do things on their own instead of playing with the pass, and that leads to mistakes,” he said. Asked what has to happen on nights like that for his two stars, he put it on everyone else. “The other guys have to step up,” he said. “If there’s that many bodies being brought to them, the attention that they get, other people have to step up and make shots, and we trust these guys to do that.”

He said that trust does not change based on who is on the floor. “It doesn’t matter who’s out or who’s in, in the sense of trust. You have to let guys be themselves, and the open man wins in the NBA, especially against this team,” Adelman said. “If you turn down open shots, you drive it back into their defense, this is the best defense in the league. So that’s not a good decision. We’ll keep working on it, though. The guys, I thought, had great effort, played extremely hard, didn’t play very well.”

Losing his shooters made it harder. Cam Johnson sprained his right ankle late in the second quarter and did not return, and Spencer Jones and Julian Strawther were already out. “If your best shooters aren’t playing, obviously that’s a big deal,” Adelman said. “But that’s not an excuse not to make the extra pass. Over-dribbling leads to turnovers, leads to run-outs.” He said the one thing that kept Denver in the game was crashing the offensive glass. The Nuggets had 19 offensive rebounds. “It seemed like that was our only good offense tonight,” he said. “So a lot to look at to clean up. It’s a loss to a really good team at the start of the season.”

Murray, who had six points and six turnovers in 37 minutes, said much the same thing about himself afterward. “Just rushing. Not trusting what’s there, what’s already open,” he said. “I got in the lane and had a floater, and just wasn’t reading the play properly.” He said the answer was to stop overthinking it: “If you miss, you miss. Whatever. You air-ball, whatever. Just play with whatever’s open.”

‘A night not for the stars’

Adelman pointed out that the stars on the other side struggled too. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander went 6-of-19, missed all seven of his first-half shots and finished with 17 points, ending his streak of 141 straight games with at least 20. Christian Braun drew most of that matchup. “Christian always gives great effort,” Adelman said. “I just thought Christian sustained his effort throughout. It’s CB’s matchup, so he did a good job.”

“It was a night not for the stars, to be honest, man,” Adelman said. He said Denver’s second-half turnovers, and the Thunder finally making “a few shots as opposed to us not making shots,” were what let Oklahoma City spread the lead out. Both teams shot 38 percent, and the Thunder made 11 of 43 threes.

Gordon, Brazile and the bench

Aaron Gordon was Denver’s best player, with 20 points on 6-of-9 shooting and 3-of-4 from three in 29 minutes. “Aaron was great. I thought we had the lead in the first half because of him,” Adelman said. “His shot looks so fluid again this year. It just allows us to play the way we want to play.” He admitted the minutes plan made things harder on Gordon. “I’m trying my best here, pulling them in, pulling them out with the minute stuff. It’s hard for him to keep his rhythm when your coach is trying to keep your minutes at a certain place. But Aaron’s impact is always huge, and if we get all three of those guys playing well, we’ll be fine.”

Trevon Brazile, playing his first NBA game, had 12 rebounds in 18 minutes. Adelman wants him to shoot more. “I actually thought he turned down shots. I’d love to see him shoot four or five threes a game. He’s got a really nice release,” Adelman said. “His rebounding impact is enormous.” He also pointed to a contest Brazile made in the corner and said, “We’re going to need him. We’re short-handed right now. And for a young kid to come in here, OKC, rookie year, first game, national TV, all that stuff, he didn’t seem fazed by it. So it was cool to see.”

On Johnson, Adelman said the forward “felt discomfort in a few ways with the ankle,” and called the timing unlucky. “It was too bad, because those guys had finally found a rhythm playing together,” he said. “And now I was throwing lineups out there that literally had not played together, even through training camp. That happens sometimes. You have injuries, but I think Cam will be okay.” He liked how the reserves held up in their first long stretch without Jokić, crediting Alpha Diallo for “impacting the ball,” Marvin Bagley III for running the floor and DeMar DeRozan, who scored 13. “Especially them being with so many new people in a game like this, I thought they did okay,” he said.

Johnson is listed as day-to-day for Denver’s home opener against the New Orleans Pelicans on Saturday at 9 p.m. ET, which is 4 a.m. Sunday in Cairo. Both teams are 0-1.