The Nuggets pulled off a rousing 139-120 home victory over a solid Atlanta Hawks team on Wednesday night behind a dominant offensive effort. That marked Denver’s third straight victory and improved the team to 19-13 on the season, good for 4th place in the highly competitive Western Conference.
They’ve done this despite a struggling bench and dealing with injuries all season. With all the issues the Nuggets have as a team, and all the adversity they’ve already dealt with this season, all things considered, they are in a pretty good spot.
This season has felt like one small disaster after another for the Nuggets. Everything has gone wrong and yet, we’re 32 games into the season and Denver is just 2 games out of 2nd place in the loss column. If they can swing a move or two and get some health luck, they’re actually in really good shape.
Malone calls Nuggets defense “embarrassing”
And yet, after the big home win on New Year’s Day, Michael Malone revealed that during halftime, he told his team, “This is embarrassing” in reference to their defense in the first half. Even in the three-game winning streak, the Nuggets have surrendered at least 120 points in each game.
They allowed 71 first-half points to the Hawks and led by just three before Malone delivered his message to the team. They responded by holding the Hawks to just 24 points in the third quarter and opening up a big lead.
Malone specifically called out his team for jogging back on defense and believing they can just show up and outscore teams. He went on to say the Nuggets’ offense is “elite”, but when they rebound and defend they are “dangerous”.
“I just told our guys, this is embarrassing” -Coach Malone#MileHighBasketball pic.twitter.com/RFKKgKVFPh
— AltitudeTV (@AltitudeTV) January 2, 2025
Malone is correct: defense is an issue
And like usual, Malone is correct. It may seem harsh given the team’s relative success lately, but he knows this isn’t sustainable and it won’t hold up against the league’s best in a playoff setting. The offense and the brilliance of Nikola Jokic is probably enough to keep the Nuggets afloat in the regular season and if things go right, it could even land them a top 4 seed.
But teams with below average defenses don’t succeed in the NBA playoffs and they don’t win titles. That’s the ultimate goal for Denver and right now they simply aren’t good enough. So, maybe it comes from internal improvement, focus, and effort, or maybe it comes from a trade, but the Nuggets defense has to improve for them to be real contenders.