With NBA Cup-eliminating loss, Nuggets are reminded of defensive flaws

Red yellow and blue have each taken their turn to no avail The Nuggets might cycle through all the colors of the rainbow before they make it to an NBA Cup quarterfinal someday Those candy-colored novelty courts remain cursed in Denver One of the winningest NBA teams of the decade hasn t advanced past the group stage three years into the league s in-season tournament an invention that has introduced arbitrary but seemingly effective competitive stakes to November and December basketball Knockout stage participants are rewarded with money from a prize pool Eight teams make it that far every season Four make it to Las Vegas where the semifinals and final are played on a neutral court It s a great bonus Jamal Murray admitted this week and guys want to go to Vegas and have specific fun So I think it s good little motivation to go there and play hard Friday night was the closest the Nuggets have been to the last eight but the threshold to play hard ironically eluded them Ahead by in the second half of their group-stage finale a win would have clinched first place in the group and a quarterfinal date with the Lakers the Nuggets fell flat on their flatiron red Ball Arena court They scored points to take advantage of a Spurs squad trying to survive without Victor Wembanyama That wasn t enough They gave up All these offensive stats are shiny and you still lose the battle coach David Adelman noted So we ve gotta grow up and compete defensively Even before the Spurs became the fifth Denver opponent to make more than threes this season Adelman was already alert to the fact that his group s defense was regressing It was reliably inevitable to particular extent The Nuggets were a bottom- defense in the league last year That they briefly ranked second-best earlier this month was likely more of a testament to the miniscule sample size and shooting variance than anything concrete But they hoped it was an encouraging sign of improvement that their defense could at least return to the top half of the league rankings It still could But the painful loss in a Cup elimination challenge was evidence Denver still has a long way to go at its weaker end of the floor a harsh wake-up call near the quarter-point of the season This is honestly good for us revealed Peyton Watson whose defensive upside is the reason he s been starting in place of the injured Christian Braun We need this experience We need to know the things we aren t good at to work on and continue to sharpen We also had a comprehensively different unit the first two three games of the season We had everybody healthy We re spread out a little bit thinner now I have to rotate guys through to find the right five that ll compete defensively Adelman mentioned Because I know we re going to number We sum a ton all the time Watson and Spencer Jones have been the replacement starters for Braun and Aaron Gordon whose coinciding injuries are clearly leaving a mark on the entire company Zeke Nnaji has filled in with rotation minutes at backup power forward But the Nuggets are allowing points per possessions over their last eight games ranking th in a span that covers almost half of their season so far It s been a gradual fade-out dotted with fewer and fewer flashes of expected It s a mindset thing Adelman announced Sit down and guard The problems against San Antonio felt reminiscent of the - Nuggets Their lead defenders such as Watson failed to hold up at the point of attack Adelman was left frustrated by Denver s lack of tenacity and physicality when navigating screens on and off the ball They hit us over and over and over he reported We have to understand that in this league you have to fight through that stuff He felt Denver s focus was in and out not ideal for a tournament after three days of rest Pick-and-rolls opened up the floor inviting the Spurs to make simple reads and rely on ball movement They rained open s Denver s off-ball defenders collapsed in too far against the roller making recovery close-outs ineffective You see a big rolling -footer rolling toward the rim you don t want to just leave him there Cam Johnson stated of the conundrum What he and Murray provided offensively went to waste in Denver s third consecutive home loss We re scoring well Playing well Moving the ball well Guys coming in are playing hard playing well Murray stated The other squad is just making shots Making shots and a lot of them are open Honestly I don t know how they re getting so open Related Articles Peyton Watson on switching agents to Klutch Big opportunity at hand this year Nuggets Mailbag Ranking Nikola Jokic s greatest passes after no-look dime to Peyton Watson Nuggets vs Grizzlies takeaways Jamal Murray steadying the ship for Denver Aaron Gordon out to weeks with hamstring injury Where can the Nuggets turn Why former Michigan star Tim Hardaway Jr is ideal Nuggets role participant With how ball-screen heavy the league is now there s inevitably kind of an advantage you can create with the ball-handler Watson declared And then on the back side we re playing -v- s With their unit they have a lot of good shooters When you re playing in between those two guys on the wing and the corner it s tough The Nuggets will visit Sacramento on Dec and host the Rockets on Dec in two replacement games added to their schedule late Friday night assignments issued by the league in lieu of NBA Cup knockout games for eliminated teams The courts will be a normal shade When it started in you kind of just look at it as part of your schedule with a funky court Adelman commented of the tournament As you go through it you realize there s something to play for which is cool Playing in pursuit of defensive competence will have to suffice instead on those December dates