The Denver Nuggets were looking to close out their 8 game homestand with a victory against one of the better teams in the NBA. Unfortunately, the Atlanta Hawks had other ideas and they backed their ideas up with effort, something that was continuously missing from the Nuggets performances. Turnovers, lackadaisical defense, poor ball movement and a dash of small ball ended up spelling ruin for Denver.
The Nuggets opened the game with a turnover which was foreshadowing for what was to come. However, for the first quarter they looked like the team that had been going punch for punch with some of the best teams in the NBA the last two weeks.