The Denver Nuggets just wrapped up their five game road trip in embarrassing fashion.

After getting out to a poor start in the first four games, the Nuggets lost 105-86 to the Houston Rockets to drop to 1-4 on the road trip. The loss also doubled as an In-Season Tournament game, meaning the Nuggets will be eliminated from the bracket before the quarterfinals even occur. The Rockets await the result of New Orleans Pelicans vs Los Angeles Clippers before the winner of Group B will be determined, but it certainly won’t be the Nuggets.

One can’t fault Nikola Jokic for a lack of effort. The Serbian center did what he could to keep the Nuggets in the game with 38 points, 19 rebounds, and eight assists in his 42 minutes. Unfortunately, Jokic shot just 14-of-31 from the field and ran out of gas relatively early in the second half, and there weren’t enough helpers in the Nuggets rotation to pick up the slack.

While Jokic wasn’t entirely efficient, he couldn’t hold a candle to the rest of the Nuggets rotation. Denver outside of Jokic scored just 48 points on 18-of-64 from the field, a paltry 28% shooting efficiency. Aaron Gordon had his worst game of the season going 0-of-12 from the field, and Reggie Jackson shot just 1-of-8. If the Nuggets get anything from those guys, it might have been a different story by the end.

Of course, blaming the starters would once again be a fools errand. The bench unit continues to be where the blame has and will continue to reside. Denver’s reserves scored just 10 combined points and left very little positive imprint on the game. Justin Holiday and Christian Braun found some ways to contribute, but the vast majority of the bench rotation minutes were a complete and utter waste of time.

The Nuggets continued to pass the ball around the perimeter on offense, never creating an advantage with that group and never capitalizing if someone else created that advantage for them. There’s too little aggression from a group that doesn’t know what, how, or when to score, and it’s beginning to permeate into the Nuggets starting offense too, a group that is almost entirely dependent upon Jokic to create consistent offense.

It’s extremely likely that changes will occur to the Nuggets rotation in the next game. The aforementioned Holiday was only brought into the game after the Nuggets were down by a million, but he made a positive impact defensively and hit a three-pointer. In fact, Holiday was a +9 in a rotation that featured zero other Nuggets with a positive plus-minus. Look for him to replace one of Peyton Watson or Julian Strawther in the second unit and rotate in for either Aaron Gordon or Michael Porter Jr. in Denver’s starting looks.

Beyond just a change in the rotation and the addition of Jamal Murray back into things, the Nuggets have to flip a switch at some point. They’re still undefeated at home at 7-0, but after a poor road trip, they’re now 3-6 away from the comforts of their own building. That’s unacceptable. It will change because the Nuggets are better than a 3-6 road team, but it’s not going to be because of Denver’s awesome shooting.

The Nuggets have to play with force again. They have to play with attitude, be more physical than the other team, and remind opponents why they were champions last year. Jokic and Murray will take care of the offense when it comes around, but the defense is a team effort, and it’s a responsibility shared by everyone involved. The Nuggets can’t be bullied by teams and out-executed at every turn. At some point, the Nuggets have to be the team that punches first again, or else they will have a season mirroring last year’s Golden State Warriors after Stephen Curry and Co. won a championship in 2022.

Aaron Gordon simply has to be better too. After pushing for an All-Star nomination last year, Gordon has been nowhere near as consistent this year. The bad shooting is one thing, but the defensive impact has tailed off in the last several games after a strong start, and the decision making on offense hasn’t been good. There are too many pull-up mid-range jumpers around the paint and not enough of what made last year great: forcing the issue inside. The poor free throw shooting might be affecting that though, as Gordon is down to 52% from the free throw line.

Whatever the case, the Nuggets are in an ugly rut at this moment, and there’s no telling when they’ll get out of it. Perhaps when Murray returns from injury. Until then, continue to expect a bumpy road.

Final Rotations