Having come through the just-completed, five-game, “Are we really serious about contending?” portion of the schedule in good shape, the Nuggets now begin a stretch they hope will allow them to move back into prime playoff position.
Starting with tonight’s Pepsi Center contest against Memphis, Denver begins an eight-game run in which there isn’t an NBA Western Conference playoff hopeful to be found. Perhaps equally important, only two of the upcoming opponents have records above .500.
“The last five games have been incredibly hard, but we survived,” coach George Karl said Tuesday of contests against Houston, Phoenix, Utah and San Antonio (twice). The Nuggets went 2-3. “One more win would have been more invigorating, but we’ve got three home games before we go back East. Every game — they’re not must-win games, but the home court’s very important, so we can’t stub our toe here. Hopefully we’ll build some confidence to get going in the direction we want to go.”
The Nuggets (37-26) are 2 1/2 games behind Golden State for the No. 8 and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. Karl said he isn’t targeting a specific number of victories to make the playoffs.
“The formula I’ve given my team is basically, we want to shoot for 50 (victories). I think we can get to 50, it sounds hard but it really isn’t,” he said. “The last week, or last 10 days of the season, we might have to upgrade that to 51 or 52 games, but at this moment you don’t have to get crazy.”
Revival redux.
One of the Nuggets’ bright spots in Monday’s 107-103 loss at San Antonio was the play of guard J.R. Smith. Easily the Nuggets’ most dynamic player, Smith eschewed his customary 3-point shooting and repeatedly took the ball hard to the basket against the Spurs’ Tim Duncan.
Smith finished with 22 points and six rebounds in 28 minutes. He has scored at least 10 points in 12 of his past 14 games. More impressive to Karl, though, has been the third-year player’s effort, which could lead to more playing time.
“He’s done a great job defensively the last two or three games,” Karl said. “He covered (Spurs guard Manu) Ginobili at a very high level, and he seems to be understanding that he has to play on that end of the court at a higher level. When he does that, he’ll get more minutes.”
Of course, Smith has been in this position before, only to somehow fall out of the good graces of the coaching staff. Smith said Tuesday he was trying to maintain an even keel about his recent good fortune.
“You can’t get too high or too down, because there’s always another game coming at you,” Smith said. “I’m just trying to use my time out there wisely, just play my game, if they like it, they like it. If they don’t, they’re not going to put me in.”
Asked if he likes where he’s at right now, Smith said: “I love it — I love where I’m at individually, but I don’t like where the team is. I think we could be better.”
MEMPHIS AT DENVER
7 p.m. tonight, ALT, KKFN 104.3 FM
Spotlight on Rudy Gay: In his second season, Gay has become the go-to guy for the Grizzlies. The forward is averaging 19.9 points and 6.1 rebounds. In the teams’ only meeting this season, Gay had 30 points and 10 rebounds in a 106-102 loss, one of his 10 games of 30 or more points this season.
NOTEBOOK
Nuggets: While understandably chafed at some of the calls that didn’t go his team’s way in a tough loss at San Antonio on Monday night, Nuggets coach George Karl said he wasn’t about to go crying to NBA officials.
“We talked about it before the game. We weren’t going to get any calls down there. We never have. We talk to the league (about officiating) about two or three times a year, but I don’t know if I’ll do it now. My thing is, we have to become mentally tough enough to understand that’s how the NBA is. You don’t get great calls on the road.”
Grizzlies: Since buying out the contract of Damon Stoudamire, rookie Mike Conley has settled in at point guard and averaged 4.4 assists per game, best among all rookies this season. Hakim Warrick, a teammate of Carmelo Anthony’s at Syracuse, is averaging 16.8 points and 8.6 rebounds in 13 starts.
Anthony Cotton: 303-954-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com
