On Saturday evening, the Denver Nuggets suffered arguably their worst loss of the season with a 126-123 home defeat to the lowly Washington Wizards. The Nuggets controlled this one for most of the night but fell victim to a late rally by the Wizards, capped off by a monster three-pointer by Jordan Poole with just seconds remaining.
After the game, Nuggets head coach Michael Malone spoke on what he perceived to be the biggest reason for the team’s puzzling loss.
“As usual, offense wasn’t a problem. But defense was often an abomination,” said Malone, per Bennett Durando of The Denver Post, via Hoopshype.
It was the second straight bizarre performance by the Nuggets. 24 hours earlier, Denver had found themselves very lucky to scrape by what was left of the Los Angeles Lakers, with LeBron James, Luka Doncic, and a host of other rotational players out of the lineup.
The Nuggets were trailing by three with under a minute to play in that contest before ultimately capturing the victory thanks to an 8-0 burst in the final stretch.
An alarming trend for the Nuggets
The Nuggets at times have made a habit out of playing down to their competition this season. Denver clearly has the talent to compete with anyone in the NBA, as evidenced by their recent road win over the Western Conference leading Oklahoma City Thunder.
However, when Denver takes their foot off of the gas pedal, they are also more than capable of losing to anyone, including the league’s worst team in the Washington Wizards.
The Nuggets are currently deadlocked with the Memphis Grizzlies for the third seed in the Western Conference, and if the playoffs began today, they’d be slated for a matchup with the red hot Golden State Warriors, which is probably not the way fans of Denver would like for things to turn out.
Of course, there’s still four weeks for things to resolve themselves and for the Nuggets to find a good rhythm heading into the postseason.
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