It was an up-and-down week for the Denver Nuggets, to say the least. The team rode into the All-Star break hotter than anyone in the league. They started the second half of the season by beating the Hornets on Thursday to extend their league-high winning streak to nine games and lift the team into second place in the Western Conference.
But that high was short-lived as the team finally came crashing back down to Earth on Saturday, getting drubbed by the Lakers in Ball Arena to end their winning streak and keep them from reaching Phil Jackson’s all-important and predictive 40 before 20 club.
Losing a game to a solid opponent after a long winning streak is hardly a big deal, but it was the way they lost. This felt like more than just a single, one-off regular season game. This felt like the Lakers were prepared and built a gameplan to take down the Nuggets and they came in and executed; making a statement and exposing Denver’s weaknesses in the process.
Nuggets fall down a spot to 5th in latest NBA power rankings
So despite the long run of success, the Nuggets actually fell a spot in John Schuhmann’s Week 19 edition of power rankings for NBA.com. In the previous edition, the team had risen all the way to fourth, but after Saturday’s demolition, they were leapfrogged by the new-look Lakers.
This may seem like an overreaction to one game, but it’s clearly more than that as the Lakers added Luka Doncic, a perennial MVP candidate and now look like a completely different team. They are the trendy new toy right now and that was reflected in these rankings as they rose from seventh to fourth.
The Nuggets still hold a lead in the standings over the Lakers and they have the inside track to the two seed in the West. But their schedule is about to get a lot harder and the Lakers employed some strategic maneuvers that could create real problems if other teams try to copy them.
Michael Malone has time to figure things out, but it’s hard to feel as good about this team and their chances to contend for a title as we did a week ago. It may just be one spot in the power rankings for now, but it does feel like a serious gap is forming between the true contenders and the next tier of teams in the NBA.