There isn’t a whole lot of hope in the standings.
When the Nuggets take the Pepsi Center court tonight against the Northwest Division-leading Utah Jazz, the mountain they must climb to challenge for the division crown is an 8 1/2-game deficit with only two games remaining against the Jazz and 30 overall.
It wasn’t long ago Nuggets coach George Karl conceded the division to Utah and shifted the focus to getting into the playoffs. He has since softened that stance.
“It seems like everyone’s helping us out by losing games,” Karl said Thursday after practice. “We’ve got to win (tonight). Utah probably has a road trip coming up here somewhere along the way. It’s kind of like a pit stop; if they have a bad pit stop and we have a good pit stop, maybe we can scare them a little bit.”
The Nuggets are staying optimistic – which in this season of fits and starts, of injuries and suspensions is about all they can do to keep their sanity and focus.
“If you don’t think that way, if you don’t approach it that way, then we’re going to make it tougher on ourselves,” guard Allen Iverson said. “We’ve got to feel like we still have a chance. Because if we do, that means we’ll approach every game that way.”
Said center Marcus Camby: “Everything is wide open right now. Nothing is solidified. No one has playoff seedings right now, so I still think it’s up for grabs. But it’s a longshot, and we have to play a whole lot better.”
The Jazz is 2-0 against the Nuggets this season and appears headed to the playoffs for the first time since 2003.
A division title would be Utah’s first since 2000 and first in the Northwest Division, which was created at the start of the 2004-05 season.
The Jazz owns seven Midwest Division crowns.
“We just want to finish this season strong,” Utah forward Mehmet Okur said during the all-star break. “We have like 30 games left to play. We have to play hard just like we did the first half and go from there.”
Added forward Carlos Boozer: “We are going to take each game one by one and not focus on who is behind us or who is catching up to us or what have you.”
Utah sees the Nuggets as a mild threat, a team that won’t cause too many problems if the Jazz takes care of business.
Asked if he thought the Nuggets could challenge Utah for the division, Okur said, “Maybe. It’s going to be a tough challenge for us. If we do well, if we are doing our thing the second half, I think we’ll be fine.”
Denver held off Utah last season for the Northwest Division title. This year has been a different story.
“Utah has kind of had our number,” Camby said. “They are the division leaders, we’re chasing them and we need a win bad. So hopefully it can turn out in our favor.”
Karl pinpointed the reasons why Utah has had success against the Nuggets this season.
“Their execution and fourth-quarter toughness has been good,” Karl said. “They’ve hurt us with the zone some.
“They’re a difficult team. They have such good execution and confidence in their offense it’s tough to trick the game. You can attack their feet and attack their defense. Last game, we played well enough offensively to win the game, we didn’t play well enough defensively.”
Staff writer Marc J. Spears contributed to this report.
Chris Dempsey can be reached at 303-954-1279 or cdempsey@denverpost.com.
