The Denver Nuggets through Tuesday’s games are 10-7, which puts them in the thick of a very tight and crowded set of good Western conference teams. But they’ve been in a general slump lately, and have some things to work out. Here’s the Denver Post on the situation:
The Nuggets have lost two in a row and six of seven heading into Wednesday night’s against the Timberwolves, who recently upended their core by trading Jimmy Butler to Philadelphia. Denver’s defense, ranked as the NBA’s best prior to their slump, is down to seventh overall, and their poor late-game execution has been exposed. They are now a team searching for an identity.
“We’re probably not a team that is 9-1 every 10 games, and I know we’re not a team that’s 1-6 in the last seven games,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said at the team’s shootaround here Wednesday. “The answer is somewhere in between. We’re trying to find out who we are.”
They had some of those answers over the final seven games last season, when they reeled off six consecutive, high-pressure wins before dropping the final game 112-106 to Minnesota. Harris and Paul Millsap said they can glean confidence from that stretch to end the season.
Next up for the Nuggets are are matchups with the Timberwolves tonight, the Magic Friday and the Thunder Saturday.
