Michael Malone knew what he was doing, and it still didn’t matter.

The Nuggets coach criticized his team’s one-half approach Wednesday. Playing well for two quarters was enough to beat the Rockets by 16 and 20 earlier in the week, but it wasn’t enough in Friday’s 117-109 loss to a Hawks team without star guard Trae Young and forwards De ’Andre Hunter and John Collins.

Mo n d a y, the Nuggets allowed the Rockets to score 68 points in the first half. Wednesday, the Nuggets led by 27 at halftime but failed to put the game away, as Malone opted to bring his starters back in midway through the fourth quarter. Friday, the struggles shifted back to the first half.

The Nuggets looked lethargic and disinterested early, and the Hawks swooped in for the kill. After a quick start, the Hawks won the second quarter 32-21 to lead 60-46 at halftime. All five of Denver’s starters were -15 or worse in the first half.

Nikola Jokic’s stat line told the story of the night. He had four points, two rebounds and four assists in the first half. He finished with 24 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists behind a strong second half. Jamal Murray also scored 14 of his 20 points after halftime.

The hope will be that Friday’s loss came with a lesson learned, as the Nuggets could again pay the price for an incomplete effort against the 14-8 Pelicans on Sunday.

Rotation watch

With Bones Hyland back in the rotation, Malone went with a five-man bench unit in the first half but went back to his staggered approach in the second half.

Late in the first quarter and early in the second, it was Hyland playing alongside fel

low reserves Ish Smith, Davon Reed, Vlatko Cancar and DeAndre Jordan. The results were solid with Smith’s minus-1 in 9:08 going down as the unit’s worst plus-minus in the first half.

The Nuggets trailed by just one with four minutes left in the third when Malone decided to bring Hyland in for Bruce Brown. Brown replaced Murray after 2:24 of game action, allowing the Nuggets to keep one starter on the court for the entirety of the second half. Reed was the odd man

out in the second half, and the hybrid units struggled late in the third quarter, a key stretch of the game.

Caldwell-pope continues quiet stretch

Kentavious Caldwell-pope finished a point shy of ending a scoring slump.

His nine points on as many shots made it four straight games the veteran wing has failed to score in double figures. Prior to the streak, which started with six points against the Clippers last Fri

day, Caldwell-pope did not have consecutive games with nine or fewer points in his first season with the Nuggets. He started November with eight straight games in double figures.

In the last four games, Caldwell-pope is averaging six field-goal attempts with just over half of those coming from 3-point range where he’s 5 for 13.

He’s earned just two free throws in that stretch and hasn’t been to the charity stripe in three straight games.