.The Pelicans’ defensive performance — particularly against Jokic, the reigning first-team All-NBA center — helped them end their early-season struggles in which they allowed at least 123 points in each of the first four games.

„More so than anything, I thought we were locked in defensively,“ New Orleans coach Alvin Gentry said. „I thought we did a really good job, especially on Jokic.“

„You can give all the transition defense rules that you want. To me, transition defense boils down to one thing — effort,“ Malone said. „Get back. You can tell them. You can lead a horse to water — whatever analogy you want to use. We did not get back.“

STARTER STRUGGLES

Denver’s starters scored just 48 points while the bench contributed the other 59.

„I thought guys off the bench played hard, gave effort,“ Malone said. „We gotta find ways to get our starters to play the same way because they’re not playing like that right now, they’re just not.“

ESPN