Like a Yo-Yo, the Nuggets Continue Up and Down Play
The Nuggets have either looked like the best team on the planet or like the worst clutch team ever.
This post originally appeared at the Your Nuggets Newsletter, hosted by Robbin Marx. I’ll be posting a weekly recap of all things Denver Nuggets there. Click that link to head on over to subscribe, like, and share from there as well. And if you like this content, head over to NuggLove, where I write multiple times daily.
Welcome back to another installment of the Your Nuggets Newsletter. We’re sorry we missed you last week, but life sometimes sends you lemons, and you can’t make any lemonade. Kind of like what has happened to the Nuggets late in games the last couple of weeks.
Since we last met, the Nuggets have been beaten on last-second shots by two MVP candidates, a ball bounced incredibly unluckily on an Austin Reaves missed free-throw, and the Nuggets smoked two playoff opponents by 28 and 36 points.
It’s the same Jekyll and Hyde play that’s been occurring for weeks. But at least the Nuggets are finally, almost, fully healthy.
Aaron Gordon is back, and the Nuggets, even when losing games, have looked so much better. Gordon’s been a lightning rod to the defense, and two of the Nuggets’ five times holding opponents under 100 points happened in the last four games.
The Clutch is Still a Problem
The Nuggets lost to the Thunder on a last-second three-pointer by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in overtime, even though they looked like the better team. And the same thing happened against the Lakers because of the unlucky bounce on Reaves’ missed free-throw: the Nuggets were again the better team, but lost.
The Nuggets are now just 17-18 in clutch games this season, a stark difference from years past, when they went 21-16 last year and 26-14 the year before that.
For whatever reason, the Nuggets just haven’t been able to catch the right side of the breaks. Jamal Murray’s missed free throws didn’t help in a few, but overall, the shots have fallen for their opponents, and they just haven’t for the Nuggets late in games.
If they fix this, and I suspect they will over the final 13 games, the Nuggets can be a dangerous team because they have the best basketball player in the world back at what seems to be full strength.
Nikola Jokic’s Wrist Seems to be Better
The Joker has been playing much more efficiently lately. He had four straight triple-doubles against the top four teams in the West before having his lowest scoring output of the year against the 76ers. But, he did have 14 assists to go along with his 8 points in only three-quarters of action.
If the Joker can stay healthy and play as he has, then there are no worries ahead for Nuggets fans. They’ll catch a break or two, and when the playoffs start, we’ll forget about the chaos the last few weeks after the All-Star Game have felt like.
Where Do We Go From Here
The final 13 games are far easier than the last seven have been. The Nuggets have the 18th-toughest remaining schedule, but they just played seven games in a row against teams bound for the playoffs and were toting around the league’s toughest remaining schedule for weeks.
It’s a welcome change. The playoffs don’t start for another month. We don’t need so many nail-biters this early on.