The Denver Nuggets are set to take on the Brooklyn Nets in the Barclays Center tonight.
The Nets are 13-39 on the year and are in the midst of their worst season in franchise history.
The Nuggets are fresh off two big wins against the Chicago Bulls and New York Knicks and now look to continue their winning ways against the putrid Nets.
The Nuggets are a team that have had peaks and valleys all year long. The Nuggs beat some solid teams like the Golden State Warriors, Toronto Raptors, Houston Rockets and Chicago Bulls; however, they’ve lost to poor teams like the New Orleans Pelicans, Utah Jazz and Milwaukee Bucks.
The Nuggets seem to turn it on and play like a playoff-caliber team against the better completion in the NBA, but they tend to flounder against the poor squads.
Denver is in a position to win their third game in a row and move to 2-0 on their road trip.
All season long, the Nuggets have played hard for 48 minutes each game, refusing to quit, no matter the situation they’re put in.
Their “will to win” has given the fans hope for the future; however, if the Nuggets want to solidify themselves as a team on the rise, they must be able to defeat poor teams like Brooklyn.
Sure its nice to see the Nuggets beat the good teams like Golden State, Toronto and Chicago, but it’s disappointing to see them play flat against the bottom half of teams in the league.
The Nuggets currently sit at 21-31 on the year, and they’ve lost 12 games to teams that are below .500. If the Nuggets were to have won those games, they would be 33-19 on the season, which would be good for the fifth seed in the West.
Even if the Nuggets managed to win four of those games, they would be 25-27 on the year, which would put them in prime position to capture a playoff spot.
The moral of the story?
Beat the teams you should beat.
If the Nuggets beat up on teams in the NBA that struggle, they would be one of the better teams in the Western Conference, which makes tonight’s game against the Brooklyn Nets a big one. It’s time to find out whether they’re going to sail or sink.
If the Nuggets want to make the playoffs this season, they have to start bulldozing over the sub .500 teams.
It may not cause a lot of fanfare throughout the NBA, but tonight’s game against Brooklyn is a season-defining one for the Nuggets.
Denver has the opportunity to win three in a row. They can’t afford to come out flat against one of the worst teams in the NBA.