Nuggets need to rally as their season is suddenly going sideways

With 10 games remaining the Nuggets have reached the homestretch of this rollercoaster regular season. After riding high for five weeks Denver has suddenly lost four of its last six, dropping to seventh place in the Western Conference as of Monday.

Are they right where they should be playing without Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. all season, or are they a disappointment after playing so well in February? The truth is somewhere in between.

Apart from their head-to-head matchups with Utah, Dallas, and Minnesota earlier this season, Denver had no control over how well those teams have been playing down the stretch. So despite winning 11 of 13 games at one point, the Nuggets didn’t gain any ground in the Western Conference.

Nikola Jokic has posted another MVP-worthy season keeping this team afloat for 72 games, but the effects of playing without the next two best scorers on the team are starting to show. Even the recent bench boost hasn’t been enough when teams have gotten more physical and focused playing for playoff seeding.

When Will Barton is good the Nuggets are tough to beat, but he’s been mostly bad all season. Barton’s 14.6 points per game are the lowest in the NBA for any team’s second-leading scorer, and his defensive effort has been abysmal for more than a month.

Jeff Green was a great story for most of the season, but he doesn’t rebound and has looked lost as of late. He’s a great veteran to rely on for 15 minutes a game, but he’s been playing 25 a night all season.

Having Murray and Porter healthy would easily fix both of those problems, but with each passing game, it’s looking more and more unlikely that either will return this season. The cumulative effect of missing two stars is taking a bigger toll the closer we get to the postseason, and Michael Malone and his staff are running out of band-aids waiting for Murray and/or Porter to return.

The Nuggets remain mostly silent on the topic, other than Malone saying Murray “isn’t close” after he returned from a G-League practice assignment in Grand Rapids last week. No one from the organization has said a word about Porter’s status, despite another report coming out Monday saying he’s targeting a return for the playoffs. The result is pessimism permeating the fan base for the first time in several months.

Maybe it was an unrealistic expectation to think Murray and Porter would be back in time for the Nuggets to make a run. I’ll admit I had Sunday’s game versus Boston kicking off a four-game homestand circled for the last 60 days or so as a target date that would be perfect for either or both to come back with 11 games to play. They didn’t, and Denver was embarrassed at home by the Celtics.

For the first time all season, I’m questioning Denver’s chances to win a playoff series. I’ve felt all along that Jokic was good enough to carry them to a first-round win with minimal help, but I’m feeling less confident. Without Murray’s shooting and playmaking or Porter’s rebounding, Jokic won’t be able to do it on his own, especially if Denver has to first win a play-in game from the seventh spot.

That’s what makes the next 10 games even more important. With seven of the final 10 at home and Denver likely to be favored in at least eight if not nine of them, the Nuggets need to take advantage. Moving up to the fifth seed is still a strong possibility given the remaining schedules for the Mavericks and Timberwolves if Denver can right the ship.

Facing Utah in a four versus five series sounds a whole lot better than facing LeBron James in one game just to get in against the Suns or Grizzlies. Winning now and moving up also relieves the play-in pressure and buys more time to evaluate Murray and MPJ.

The schedule is in their favor and they’ve got the MVP on their side. Now the Nuggets need to stop their slide and finish strong if they have any hopes of winning a playoff series or more this season.
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