The Nuggets are sitting at 13th place in the Western Conference with 23 games to go after their game against the Pelicans ends later tonight. They’re not mathematically eliminated from the playoffs yet, but they stand little chance of acquiring a berth in the top-heavy West. In Friday’s humiliating, 102-84, loss to the Jazz on their home floor, it was clear Denver’s already looking forward to the offseason.
According to the Chris Dempsey of the Denver Post, the Nuggets broke the huddle in Friday’s game with a chant of “1-2-3…six weeks.” That’s how much time is left in the season — a season marred with all sorts of missteps, and one that could lead to the ouster of coach Brian Shaw if his group keeps coming out as flat as they did on Friday night.
Way back in 1998, Nick Van Exel caused an uproar when he jokingly said “1-2-3…Cancun” while his Lakers were trailing the Jazz — yup, them again — during the Western Conference Finals. Some of Nick the Quick’s teammates — most notably Shaq, before he’d ever won a title — took it as a sign he had already given up the fight. The Jazz ended up sweeping the Lakers to move on. One month later, the Lakers traded Van Exel to — yup — the Nuggets.
This year’s Nuggets squad is set to finish with their worst record since they went 17-65 and drafted Carmelo Anthony with the third overall pick in the 2003 Draft.
Shaw, who will sit on a smoking seat the rest of the season, placed some of the blame on himself, as Dempsey relays:
“I’m frustrated in myself because I feel that I need to figure out a way to do a better job at trying to get that out of us, get that hustle and those kinds of plays and to play with more of a sense of urgency, play with more tenacity,” he said.
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“Our guys are frustrated, too. And so the weight of this all starts to come down. Some guys in those situations fight harder. Some guys give in.”
Denver’s taken a long dive since finishing with a 57-25 record and the No. 3 seed in the West during the 2012-13 season. George Karl was named coach of the year that season, then let go that summer after a first-round loss to the Warriors. Forward-thinking GM Masai Ujiri fled for a bigger offer in Toronto that same summer. Shaw took over and the Nuggets missed the playoffs last year after finishing 36-46.
This year, things are even worse. Their team-wide chant in the huddle shows just how muddled things have become, and we doubt the Nuggets will have any wind left for the final sprint to the playoffs.
