The Denver Nuggets gauntlet of a schedule may not be a bad thing. In terms of wins and losses, it’s not going to be pretty, but what this team can take away from games against the league’s best will be huge. Let’s not forget how entertaining the games have been, and will continue to be, this week.
This Nuggets team, and a lot of Nuggets teams in the past, has had a weird trend. That trend is that they always seem to play up to their competition, but at the same time, they seem to always play down to competition as well. It’s been happening for decades; one of those 10 losses the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls suffered came at the hands of the Denver Nuggets. The last year the Nuggets made the playoffs and won 57 games, they only lost three games at home all year. One of the two losses came to the eventual champions in the Miami Heat, but the other two came at the hands of the Minnesota Timberwovles and Washington Wizards, neither of whom made the postseason.
Here we are in the midst of the toughest part of Denver’s schedule and the team is once again playing up to the competition. Playing up to the competition and losing, but none the less playing up to the competition.
It started with a 101-86 loss to the Spurs on December 26th. Outside of a bad second quarter, the Nuggets hung around with the Spurs who are undefeated at home at 18-0.
Next up were the Oklahoma City Thunder on the second night of a back to back. Denver did fall 122-112 but let the game slip away. The Nuggets held the lead in the second half of that game until they fell apart in the fourth and final quarter. But much like in the San Antonio game, the Nuggets were hanging around with a team that will no doubt make a run in the playoffs, and they are doing this with a banged up roster.
Tuesday night brought the King and his Cavaliers to town. A team that only had nine losses on the year and has got their all star guard in Kyrie Irving back, although he will not play against the Nuggets. The Nuggets have had some success against LeBron James, in fact according to this SB Nation article the Nuggets are one a few teams that have had success against the self proclaimed King. Denver trailed big at times, but still managed to keep the final score relatively close, 93-87.
After hosting LeBron and all the kings men, Denver will travel to Portland for a matchup with the Trailblazers. Again expect the Nuggets to play down to the competition that night. Portland is struggling to figure out what life without LaMarcus Aldridge is like but still has one of the best point guards in the league with Damian Lillard.
Finally the gauntlet ends with the best team in the league. The Nuggets will be in Oakland to play the Warriors on January 2nd. There is always one exception to the rule and the exception to the Nuggets playing up to competition are the Golden State Warriors. Don’t feel bad Nuggets fans, the Warriors embarrass everyone.
As I wrote in “Could Michael Malone be Denver’s best coach,” this is all an indication as to how good of a job coach Malone has done with the roster he was given. Let’s all enjoy some good basketball even if it does come at the expense of a loss.
