It took a remarkable 23-point comeback, but the Nuggets pulled out an impressive 134-133 victory in Atlanta on Friday night, extending their franchise-record road winning streak to nine straight games.
Amazingly, the team is in the midst of an infuriating four-game losing streak at home, but whenever they get away from Ball Arena lately, they seem to play their best basketball. It’s a very odd twist for a team that is consistently one of the best in the NBA at home.
But their historically great homecourt advantage hasn’t been there this season as the Nuggets are just 6-4 playing in Denver. That would potentially be a reason for some early-season panic, but the noise around the home struggles has been quieted thanks to a ridiculous 10-2 record away from home.
It doesn’t make a ton of sense, other than the classic idea that the Nuggets need a little motivation to play their best. They’ve been offering some less-than-stellar efforts at home recently against teams like the Kings, Bulls, and Mavericks.
Yet when they’ve gone on the road and faced quality opponents like the Rockets and Timberwolves, or adversity like the 23-point deficit in Atlanta on Saturday, that’s when they’ve risen to the occasion and looked like the title contender we all expect them to be.
Denver must end home struggles to reach potential
The Nuggets have all the excuses in the world for the lackadaisical home play: they’re missing two starters to injury, it’s early in the season, the low-level opponents surprised them and played over their heads, and on and on.
But at the end of the day, these results matter. The Western Conference is loaded at the top, and seeding is going to matter a lot come playoff time. As well as the Nuggets are playing on the road at the moment, they would benefit greatly from home-court advantage for a couple of rounds.
That would require securing the 2 seed, which should be a reachable goal. Sure, the Thunder are on another level right now and appear destined to coast to the top seed. But locking up the second seed, homecourt advantage in rounds 1 and 2, and avoiding OKC until the West Finals should be the goal right now.
Yet at the moment, even though the team has a solid 16-6 record, they’re sitting in 4th place in the West. Things are tight, and a couple of good or bad results in a row could push any team from 2nd to 5th or vice versa. But those swings are going to make all the difference, which is why the Nuggets need to clean up their Ball Arena issues.