Category: Denver Nuggets Blog

Nuggets struggling this season, even at home

Here’s the Denver Post reporting on the Nuggets, who through Thursday’s games are 20-37 this season: 12-16 at home, 8-21 on the road:

Once one of the NBA’s most-feared home court advantages, the Nuggets have fallen back to earth at the Pepsi Center in the last two seasons. Since winning a franchise-record 38 home games in the 2012-13 season, the Nuggets haven’t won 38 home games in the last two seasons combined. They are 34-35 in that span, which includes this season’s 12-16 mark. The Nuggets went 22-19 at the Pepsi Center last season.

With 13 home games left, the Nuggets have to go 9-4 in order to avoid having their first losing home record since 2002-03. That team finished 13-28 at home.

Shaw talked about the Nuggets’ challenge to win home games — and fast.

“What starts to happen is guys start to look forward to playing on the road because the home crowd starts to get antsy, and things don’t go well then they start to get on us,” Shaw said.

The Denver Nuggets assigned rookie guard Erick Green to the Fort Wayne Mad Ants of the NBA Development League today, according to General Manager and Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations Tim Connelly.

The Nuggets drafted Green 46th overall (second round) in the 2013 NBA Draft. He has appeared in 14 games this season, averaging 3.3 points in 7.3 minutes per game.

Green will be available for Fort Wayne’s game at Rio Grande Valley on Jan. 23.

Here’s the Denver Post reporting on an amazing game power forward Kenneth Faried put up in Saturday’s Nuggets win over the Minnesota Timberwolves:

It’s the little things Brian Shaw hates. The times when his players don’t box out. The times when the ball bounces in front of them and they still don’t go for the ball. The (many) missed free throws. The shoddy defense.

He must have had a hard time sitting through Friday’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Pepsi Center.

Coming off a blowout loss at Charlotte and a sloppy defeat at Brooklyn, the Nuggets returned home to host the Timberwolves, the worst team in the West, in a game that, on paper, should have been Denver’s for the taking.

And until the fourth quarter, Kenneth Faried appeared to be the only Nuggets player who wanted it.

Faried, who turned in one of his finest showings of the season against Brooklyn three nights earlier, came back with an even better one Friday with 26 points and a career-high 25 rebounds while leading the Nuggets to a 106-102 victory over the Timberwolves.

Here’s the Denver Post reporting some unfortunate injury-related news on Nuggets forward Danilo Gallinari:

Following his best game of the season, Gallinari was diagnosed with a meniscus tear in his right knee. He is expected to undergo surgery in the next couple of days, and there is a tentative three-week timetable for his return.

It is another blow to Gallinari, who has been trying to battle back from missing 19 months of action because of a torn anterior cruciate ligament. The latest injury is not connected to his other two ACL surgeries, which were performed on his left knee.

Here’s the Denver Post reporting on the Nuggets, who are majorly struggling lately:

Hoping to clear the air and get everybody on the same page, Nuggets coach Brian Shaw had “a couple of” individual meetings with players Tuesday, he said.

“There’s frustration,” Shaw said. “Obviously, we’re 10-14. We feel that out of those games there’s maybe a handful that we feel that we could have reversed — we feel we kind of did it to ourselves in those games. But I see frustration from some of the guys that aren’t playing as much as they want to play, from some of the guys that aren’t playing as well as they want to play.”

Danilo Gallinari and Kenneth Faried have been the most frustrated with their playing time as they battle through injuries and ineffectiveness. The Nuggets are 1-6 in their past seven, and the frustration isn’t limited to those two players.

Gallinari has missed the past three games with a bruised right knee but is expected to play Wednesday against the Houston Rockets.

The Denver Nuggets are 8-8 this season, and after a very tough start have won six of their last seven games. Things are looking up lately. But the team still hopes for more from power forward Kenneth Faried, who shined for Team USA this summer and inked a huge new contract, but has been off to a relatively slow start.  Here’s the Denver Post reporting

Faried knows the start of his season hasn’t been up to standard — by his standard or anyone else’s who knows he has so much more to give. So he doesn’t mince words. He has been a shell of himself, a half-Manimal through the first 16 games, desperately seeking his whole self again.

“I just haven’t been playing my game,” Faried said. “I know it. My teammates know it. My coaches know it. Hopefully, this month of December, I turn everything around. But for me, it’s awful. You’ve got to be able to look at yourself, look at the man in the mirror and say that to yourself. And be able to correct yourself.”

Faried’s averages — 11.4 points, 7.1 rebounds, 50 percent shooting — all are down from last season. And this was to be the season of his true ascension, when he built upon his strong finish of 2013-14. It still can be.