Each week Nugg Love takes a look around the web to see where the experts rank the Denver Nuggets on their versions of the NBA Power Rankings.
Another week goes by, another turning of the tide happens. The Denver Nuggets went 1-3 in week nine of the NBA season bringing their overall record to 12-19.
The Nuggets started at home against the Lakers in a game that the Nuggets should have won. Instead, Kobe decided to turn back the clock to drop 31. The Lakers scored 111 and shed more light into how bad the Nuggets’ defense has been.
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Not only did they give up 130 points to the New Orleans Pelicans last Sunday, but they followed up their loss to the Lakers giving up 101 to San Antonio and 122 to the Oklahoma City Thunder. With the Nuggets only scoring a shade over 99 points per game, their offense is not nearly good enough to make up for their terrible play on the other end of the floor.
The Nuggets stole one in Phoenix against a free-falling suns team, but dropped their next two on the road against the previously mentioned Spurs and Thunder.
Injuries and depth plagued them throughout the week as Emmanuel Mudiay missed all four games and Danilo Gallinari continues to nurse his ankle injury as well. Both are likely still out until this weekend at the earliest.
After trending upwards significantly, let’s look to see if the experts around the web still see this team as exceeding expectations or if the losses take them down a notch.
In a refreshing fashion, the Nuggets ugly, ugly week was taken fairly reasonably across the board. They actually were bumped up in the standing by everybody except CBS Sports’ Matt Moore.
Moore was the highest on the Nuggets by far last week so it’s no surprise that they fall back a little bit to 23. He still has them the highest in the west however at 11th. He brought up a good point in that the Nuggets have played well against good teams, but struggle against bad teams. Their loss the Lakers is a great example of that. They need to find a way to bring the same intensity every night.
A key factor to the Nuggets success in the standings is the continued struggles of other western conference teams. The Suns, as mentioned before, have slid so far that experts have unanimously put them behind Denver. The Timberwolves also continue to fall as they slow down after a hot start to the season.
The Nuggets’ schedule coming up is not ideal. They have a four game week with two sets of back-to-backs.
After losing last night to the Cavs, Mike Malone’s squad will look to bounce back on the road against the Trail Blazers tonight. Then they stay on the pacific coast against the Golden State Warriors Saturday night before returning home Sunday for another quick matchup against the Portland.
It would be foolish to assume they could grab the upset against the Warriors in Oakland, so we are going to have to hope they can handle business multiple times against the Trail Blazers.
With a tough eastern conference schedule looming ahead, this is the time for the Nuggets to right the ship. For now, they are focused on getting their defense right and their bodies healthy. We’ll see if they can step up their performances this week and stay in the playoff chase heading into January.