Denver Nuggets Power Rankings: Week 11
By Jack Malloy
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
Aaaaaaand we’re up-ticking this week. The back and forth, give and take, up and down continues.
Last week, I brought up the issues in front of the Denver Nuggets. They were still plagued by injuries, their defense was absolutely abysmal, and it all led to a six game slide and nine losses in their last ten.
We have to give it up to this squad, they are ever so resilient. Just when it’s time to write them off, they show the potential that we hope to see come to fruition over the next few years.
Wednesday evening took them to Minnesota to take on the Timberwolves for the fourth time this season. In unique fashion, the Nuggets won their third straight against the Wolves and snapped the six game losing streak in a low scoring, 78-74 affair.
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Jusef Nurkic, in only his third game back, grabbed a massive 15 point, 10 rebound double-double in only 22 minutes backs. This game opened everybody’s eyes back up to remember what the “Bosnian Beast” is truly capable of.
Friday night brought the lone loss of the week on the road in Memphis. The Nuggets were only down two points with less than three minutes to go, but could not pull out the win, spoiling Danilo Gallinari’s 29 points. Still, holding their opponent to 91 points on 36 percent shooting from the field was a welcome sight.
Sunday began an eight game home stand and the Nuggets took full advantage of playing in front of a home crowd. Emmanuel Mudiay returned to action for the first time in almost a month and made an impact right away. Scoring 11 with only one turnover, I saw no signs that the ankle injury hampered him at all.
While the offense went stale at times, their defense held strong enough for them to pull out the 95-92 win over the Charlotte Hornets and improve to 2-1 on the week.
Addressing some of the key issues was a sight for sore eyes and something the Nuggets really needed at this stage of the season to keep themselves from free-falling in the minds of fans and analysts.
So, let’s take a look at the Week 11 NBA Power Rankings around the web to see where Denver shook out:
The experts were surprisingly generous even though they all acknowledged the difficult schedule coming up. Overall, the Nuggets are on the rise and even jumped up four spots, to 23rd in ESPN’s standings.
As far as the hard schedule goes, of the 16-day home stand they embarked upon, Charlotte has the worst record and the other seven all sit over .500.
John Schuhmann of NBA.com remarks that the Nuggets defense held opponents under 94 points per 100 possessions last week and looked solid. He was concerned with their offense though, especially since they had a seven point quarter in their loss to Memphis.
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The Nuggets schedule coming up has its good and bad. The good being there is zero traveling. They will play at home and sleep in their own beds, making practices and game planning throughout the week very accessible.
The bad is that their home court isn’t that advantageous. Fans still aren’t showing up and the arena is far from rockin’. It’s hard to gain the momentum without that energy in the arena.
They match up this week against the Warriors, Heat, and Pacers in the same schedule as last week with games falling on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday, respectively.
You can all but chalk up a loss Wednesday against the Warriors even though the Nuggets chased them into overtime just two weeks ago. With Steph Curry healthier than before, it will be a huge task to slow that offense down.
The Heat are very beatable on the road this season with a 7-7 record compared to 15-8 at home. They will also be coming off road games against the Warriors and Clippers while preparing for Oklahoma City after their stop at the Pepsi Center. There is a good chance the Nuggets can slide under the radar and catch Miami by surprise.
Indiana is going to be a tough challenge for Denver as the return of Paul George takes this team to a whole new level. If the Nuggets want to take them down, he is the one that they need to focus on shutting down.
I don’t think it would surprise any of our panelists if the Nuggets went 0-3 this week, so any success they have will be an added bonus. I would love to see them stand up against the new and improved eastern conference and beat two of the power houses.
We’ll follow up next week to see how the Nuggets hold it down in the Mile High city.