David Adelman Calls Out Nuggets' Effort in Costly Loss to Warriors

The Denver Nuggets fell in what was one of their worst losses of the year on the road against a Golden State Warriors team that was severely depleted heading into the night.

No Stephen Curry. No Draymond Green. No Kristaps Porzingis. No Jimmy Butler.

Despite that, the Warriors rallied to an explosive fourth quarter behind a Brandin Podziemski explosion of 15 points. Denver couldn't counter offensively despite some Nikola Jokic heroics, and thus, just fell apart in the clutch that led to the end result being what it was.

So what were the leading causes behind the Nuggets' demoralizing loss? In the eyes of David Adelman, it comes down to not just their lackluster ball control, but more importantly their lack of energy that was showcased from start to finish.

“Yeah, we didn't take care of the ball. I thought we had some empty possessions that even though they weren't turnovers, they led to poor shots and run outs for them. So really poor execution throughout the start of the fourth, but the bottom line is this game came down to the start of the game," Adelman said postgame.

Feb 19, 2026; Inglewood, California, USA; Denver Nuggets head coach David Adelman at press conference at the Intuit Dome. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

"We were not ready to play. This has been a tough weekend for us with the game time, back-to-back and all that but it has nothing to do with your approach to the game. We gave them confidence early. Their energy surpassed ours, they played harder... So your approach to these games has to be different, wasn't good enough tonight. This is one of those losses during the season where you're gonna look back and really wish we had a different approach to start the game.”

David Adelman Says Nuggets Weren't Ready to Play vs. Warriors

The schedule the Nuggets had to deal with heading into the contest didn't do them any favors either. After a back-to-back fresh out of the All-Star break, to then playing an early tip-off game on Sunday on the road, it's easy to see how Denver was a bit low on gas before the game even started.

But even with that lack of energy, the sheer talent disparity between the two teams on the floor still makes this one the Nuggets should've come away with on paper. Instead, sloppy play from start to finish on both ends now keeps Denver at 36-22, and just one game back of the sixth seed in the Western Conference. It also makes for Denver's third consecutive road loss to the Warriors.

“We've won here a lot. We've had game winners here, all those things. But yeah, they play with a great intensity defensively here," Adelman continued on the Warriors. "They ratchet it up and it doesn't matter who's playing. You know that when they have those guys out there, Payton (Gary Payton II), (De'Anthony) Melton, all these guys, they can really make the game difficult defensively."

"We made it difficult on ourselves because we didn't compete on the other end until the third quarter. So it's a great crowd here. It's always been a tough place to play. The old arena was an absolutely unbelievable atmosphere and this one is as well. So I don't think that had anything to do with our loss tonight, though. I just thought we just did not have the right approach.”

It's back to the drawing board for the Nuggets once again as they head back home for their next outing. For a team trying to build consistency in the second half of the regular season before the playoffs, they oddly just haven't looked as refined since Jokic returned from his extended injury absence.