The Denver Nuggets have fallen out of the Top 20 in Defensive Rating.

Technically, a team doesn’t have to have a great defense in order to win a championship. It definitely helps though, and the Nuggets are clearly missing our on some opportunities to be better defensively in these final games of the regular season. The effort and execution simply haven’t been good enough, and the Nuggets are struggling to get through the finish line of the regular season, let alone play their best basketball.

Can the Nuggets turn things around? With Nikola Jokic, they at least know their rebounding will be pretty good. That’s better than right now, where nothing is good. Perhaps when Jokic returns, Denver will lock in.

At this point though, it’s easily to simply believe a simple tenet of sports truth: you are what your record says you are.

On the latest episode of Pickaxe and Roll, Ryan Blackburn breaks down the Denver Nuggets blowout loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday night. The Nuggets defense continues to look hapless, and Jamal Murray returning to the floor didn’t help Denver at all. Ryan breaks down the game, Denver’s defensive issues, the Blame Game, and some lineups without Nikola Jokic.

Pickaxe and Roll is a Nuggets podcast streamed live on YouTube every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday at 10am MT. You can catch episodes live by subscribing to the Mile High Sports YouTube channel and turning on Bell Notifications.

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If you can’t catch Pickaxe and Roll live, listen to the audio version on the BLEAV Podcast Network, or download this podcast episode wherever you get podcasts.