After a “way too close” win over the Los Angeles Lakers, the Denver Nuggets looked very, very tired.

Jamal Murray saved the day for Denver with a game-winning three in the closing seconds, taking advantage of the attention paid to Nikola Jokic on the final offensive possession. As the Lakers tried to deny Jokic the ball, Christian Koloko and Dalton Knecht overcommitted to preventing a pass. Rather than fight the game, Jokic simply set a back screen for Murray with less than 10 seconds remaining, and Murray calmly dribbled into a pull-up jumper that was wide open by NBA standards.

“We talk a lot about when Nikola’s being fronted to ‘screen your own and drive the red,'” Nuggets head coach Michael Malone shared with media postgame last night. “Red is a front for us, so drive the red…Nikola flips the screen, Jamal comes off, and he’s wide open and knocks down a huge shot.”

“Having the luxury to go to Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic down the stretch has proven to be very effective for many years.”

A Russell Westbrook steal and slam on the next possession sealed the deal. Denver escaped with a win they probably didn’t deserve by the skin of their teeth.

Afterwards, the Nuggets were forced to celebrate a victory that felt closer to relief than joy as the Nuggets toiled with a team that didn’t play the vast majority of their playoff rotation and still struggled to get stops. That Denver couldn’t put this game away earlier wasn’t a great sign.

“When you look at the standings, and you’re one game ahead of the Lakers, and you’re tied 1-1, no matter who plays for who, we have to start finding a way to play more consistent basketball, better defense throughout.” Malone noted. “Through [67] games now, we have the 29th rated first quarter defense, so we must be looking past a lot of folks for that to be the case. I think it’s more a matter of us to find a way to start the game with greater urgency.”

By the way, the Nuggets 118.9 defensive rating in the first quarter would rank last among all teams if done across all four quarters of a game. The Nuggets are simply horrible on that end of the floor to begin games this season.

When asked about what the team must improve in the final 15 games, Jamal Murray pointed to that defensive urgency not being good enough.

“I don’t really care about offense,” Murray stated. “We’re good on offense. We’ll miss, we’ll make, be resilient and fight back…but how solid you can be on the defensive end, how physical you can on the defensive end, rebounding, getting back on defense, I think all of those things are the needs, not just the wants. We need to do that. We need to create these good habits for the Western Conference playoffs.”

“We’ve just gotta keep practicing [good habits] and have a better start,” Murray shared, “because this is all learning too. We get to learn about ourselves when we play against a team like that, and I’m happy to work for the win…I think all of this will help.”

“I think it’s the physicality…when we play physical on the defensive end, it gets us going.”

So, urgency, toughness, grit, and physicality seem to be the important words for Denver’s defense. It’s one bad habit they’ve forged this season that works counter to their championship goals. Finding ways to break that habit is going to be difficult, even when the playoffs come, because the Nuggets aren’t used to working that hard early in games on the defensive end. Just starting to do that in mid to late March isn’t going to give the Nuggets enough time to become the best version of themselves defensively.

At least, that’s my opinion. It takes constant effort and focus from the top down to forge a championship level habit like that, and the Nuggets simply haven’t done it, and the harder they work to forge it in these final 15 games, the more tired they will be when the playoffs begin.

The discussion circled back around to how exhausted the Nuggets are at this stage of the season.

“Tomorrow will be our fifth game in seven days,” Malone stated. “That worries me more than anything.”

“Nikola missed five free throws. When has Nikola ever missed five free throws? … I think, and he won’t admit it because that’s who he is, but you can’t tell me that the elbow and everything else is irritated and bothersome right now.”

So, how do the Nuggets get rested for a playoff run while fighting for playoff position?

“It’s going to be really hard, if not impossible,” Malone declared. “Sometimes, rest is not doing a damn thing and letting guys stay off their feet, stay away. It’s mental, physical, and emotional, and if we have to start looking at [resting] games, we can. Because the reality is this…there’s a lot of teams that we’re competing with that we have to play coming up, and those head-to-head matchups and outcomes are a big, big differentials.”

Denver’s in a tough spot. They’re ready for the regular season to be over, but they’re not ready for the playoffs. Nikola Jokic has put together an incredible individual campaign worthy of another MVP, but it’s sapped his effectiveness and effort on defense at this stage. His breakdowns are more effort based rather than scheme based. The rest of Denver’s rotation? A mix of both, but primarily scheme based mistakes where the breakdowns happen because someone doesn’t recognize what’s supposed to happen.

These are factors that will challenge Denver when the playoffs come around. The entire rotation will be moderately better on their defensive scheme due to better preparation, and Jokic will be better defensively with more consistent effort. Unfortunately, that’s not all it takes to be elite defensively. Denver has to find ways to go above and beyond simply avoiding mistakes. Actually making proactive plays, forcing opposing offenses to be uncomfortable and make mistakes of their own. Those are marks of a defense that’s ready to compete at a high level, but the Nuggets simply haven’t developed that gear yet, and they probably never will.

The Nuggets don’t have enough time to change that, and the harder they work to make it happen, the more exhausted they will be in a month.

It’s not exactly an encouraging sign for Denver’s playoff readiness this season.

Final Rotations