What’s Going on This Season?
The Denver Nuggets are no doubt one of the top teams in the NBA and are currently in third place in the Western Conference. Though the Nuggets play great against teams like the Lakers and Cavilers, they struggle to win against teams with a winning percentage under .500.
Denver is a high paced high scoring team that brings its A game night in and night out. But why is it that the nuggets are 27-11 against teams with winning records above .500, yet they are 15-10 against teams under. The Nuggets are ranked third in the entire NBA with scoring per game with 107 ppg, behind the Phoenix Suns and Golden State Warriors. They are one of the top ranked teams at home with a record of 42-21, and can even compete with out All Star Carmelo Anthony, as they are 7-3 without him. Leading the Nuggets is All Star Chauncey Billups, who is from Denver Colorado. Billups has a winning mentality with championships from the Detroit Pistons, and backing Billups up is a very young, athletic Ty Lawson. A supporting cast doesn’t phase the nuggets as they have players like JR Smith, Kenyon Martin, Chris Anderson (Birdman), Neñe, and upcoming star Arron Afflalo. Denver seems to have everything going for them, plus they are able to beat the most competitive teams in the league. But why do the Nuggets struggle against weaker teams?
Some factors contributing to the struggle is that basketball is a team sport that requires a team effort in order to win. When the nuggets are down a player or two for some games, it throws off the team chemistry. It puts the young, inexperienced players in higher positions that they are not used to being in. So when players like Melo, Birdman, Martin, and Billups are injured, other players must step up to fulfill those star-player roles. The Nuggets are in fact an old team, with the leader of the team, Billups, being 34 years old. Being a basketball player myself, I can tell you that the game is hard on the human body, no matter how great of shape you are in. So for the veterans of the team, sometimes they aren’t playing to the best of their abilities, which again forces the younger inexperienced players to step up.
In addition to these problems, playing on the road this season has been a struggle for the Nuggets as they are 14-16 thus far, which is bad. For teams playing on the road it can be difficult because your playing in a different hostile environment, which makes players feel uncomfortable and not as focused. For the teams that play at home, they are in their comfort zone with the crowd on their side cheering them on, while making the other team not feel welcomed. Some ways the Nuggets can perform better on the road are to stay as focused as possible and play as a team.
The only explanation to this odd winning pattern of the Nuggets is that there isn’t one. Basketball is a game where anything can happen, and a team can sometimes have a terrible game where nothing seems to go their way. It has been demonstrated through history with every kind of sport. Like when the Golden State Warriors beat the Dallas Mavericks in the playoffs when they were the 8th seed, and Dallas was the 1st seed. Even here at TJ it has been demonstrated when the basketball team lost to Denver North last year. Basketball is a game where anything can happen. A team can be the greatest, but still loose to the worst. There is a fifty fifty chance of winning or losing for every sport, and that won’t ever change.
So what does this mean for the Denver Nuggets? It doesn’t mean anything. All Denver can do is keep competing hard like they’ve been doing. The Nuggets still have the same chance as everybody else to make it to the playoffs and win the NBA finals. Not to mention, basketball is a season with 82 games, so a lot of things may still happen. I personally believe that the Nuggets are more than capable of going to the NBA finals this season, but there’s still a lot of basketball to be played.
