Unfortunately, there are a few trends we need to talk about. Bad trends. No good, stinky ones. The kind that you think about when you roll over in bed at 2 a.m. Okay, maybe that's only been me the past few nights. Perhaps there are others. But that wide-awake, middle-of-the-night-restlessness has got me to thinking about how these trends could affect the final two months of the season.
The most glaring one isn't even the injury bug. The Nuggets have found replacements left and right. No, the most glaring one is their inept play in the clutch. A clutch game is any game that's within a five-point range at any point within the final five minutes.
The Nuggets are just 13-13 in clutch games, dropping their last three chances while playing against top-tier opponents. And that's one of the trends keeping me, or us, up at night. Do the Nuggets have what it takes to match up with the Thunder, Spurs, or even the Rockets, Lakers, or Timberwolves? It's a crowded field in the West, with seeds three through seven separated by only two games.
Clutch play isn't the only large problem
The other elephant in the room is the question surrounding the Nuggets' defense. It's been trending down, now 24th out of 30 in defensive rating, and 26th in adjusted defensive rating. They're also allowing 116.4 points per game, good for only 19th. And there's no ball pressure. The Nuggets rank 29th in team steals and dead last in turnovers forced per game. It's ugly.
Then, there's the return of the Joker. The Nuggets are just 2-4 with Nikola Jokic back in the lineup. They were 10-6 without him. That doesn't make any sense, but it's reality.
Jokic's been on a bit of an odd rotation that coach David Adelman discussed in a recent interview. He's having to be cautious with Jokic's minutes and how they're used, but he thinks that with a good rest over the All-Star break, Jokic should be back to a normal rotation.
But it's not all dark and stormy. The Nuggets still have the league's top offense, and they're still the number one three-point shooting team, too. Coach Adelman sounded pretty confident when he said the recent struggles could be "cleaned up."
We hope so, coach. It's been tough to watch the past few losses, especially the gut-wrenching one against the Cavs in the final second. Who knows, maybe he put that last part, "cleaned up," in so we can get back to sleep at night. Because he knows, we're all a little restless.