Against Brooklyn, the Nuggets trailed by 16 in the third quarter. Against Philadelphia, Denver was staring at a 21-point deficit in the fourth.
Both times, the Nuggets (8-3) had to mount furious rallies to emerge with a win.
“The last couple of wins we’ve had at home, they’ve been great, they’ve been dramatic, cardiac kids,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said after Saturday’s practice. “We keep on building these double-digit deficits and good teams don’t do that. We have to be a lot better. … Second half defense was amazing (vs. the Nets), we were two different teams, but why does it take us getting down by double figures to come out and play like that?”
That’s what the Nuggets keep asking themselves. Despite authoring the league’s fifth-best defense overall, it was non-existent Tuesday as Trae Young erupted for 42 points to lead Atlanta to a win. On other nights, when the defense has been reliable, it’s the offense that’s gone cold.
Against Minnesota, the Nuggets survived a scoreless streak that lasted more than half of the fourth quarter.
“We’re not playing good at all,” said Nuggets point guard Jamal Murray, who agreed they were fortunate to be 8-3 with all their inconsistencies. “We’re not shooting well, we’re not finishing well, our defense is inconsistent. If we get it together, we’re going to be a really good team, but right now we’ve got a lot of kinks to work out.”
Malone recently said that they’ve only put together one solid win, and that was their blowout victory over Miami. Does he see signs that could indicate another breakthrough, perhaps in Sunday’s game at Memphis?
“I don’t know, I can’t answer that with any certainty,” Malone said. “That’s been one of our challenges is putting together a 48-minute effort. … Obviously we’re 11 games in, we’ve had a tremendous amount of open shots that we haven’t made consistently enough. We’re going to take off at some point, but I love the fact that we’re 8-3, we have the fifth-ranked defense, and I think offensively we’re not very good right now.”
Heading into Sunday’s game, the Nuggets own the league’s 21st ranked offense, and their overall shooting percentage (43%) is third-last in the league. Against Brooklyn, there were a handful of missed layups that would’ve made the outcome far less tense.
“We can definitely play a lot better to make those wins a little easier and not comeback wins or almost letting a team comeback and win,” Murray said.
