Suddenly, basketball is fun again for the Nuggets. Going to the arena isn’t a train-wreck journey. Facing the media isn’t a face-cringing task. Well, maybe not completely.
But the last nine days have made a huge difference for the Nuggets. On March 8, the Nuggets sat in a small locker room at Sacramento, shaken to the core about what kind of team they had become. At that point, they had lost eight of 11.
Now? The only remnant of those days is a lingering six-game losing streak on the road that the Nuggets will try to end tonight at Memphis. Otherwise, they have won three straight, and players say there is a new atmosphere around the team since the loss at Sacramento.
“It’s a big difference,” guard Anthony Carter said. “Everybody was kind of down on themselves and down on the team. . . . But now we won three in a row and guys are just being more focused on trying to make this playoff push. We know it’s now or never.”
Said guard Chauncey Billups: “Winning solves everything. We’re starting to play better. We’re starting to play Denver Nuggets basketball, like we did early in the season. Obviously we’ve gotten healthy, getting everybody back now. That helps. Winning is everything. If we can just continue to play the right way, we’ll be fine.”
Lately, playing the right way has involved simplification. The Nuggets have gone back to the basics on defense where things got so complicated and muddled, players were doing the wrong things much more often than anything right.
“We started off doing one thing during training camp and then when we play against certain teams, we’d change it up, switching this guy, switching that guy,” Carter said. “So we’re kind of going to the basics of what got us to a lot of wins early. Simplifying everything and making sure everybody is held accountable. We wasn’t that aggressive, but now we’re a lot more aggressive when we went back to our main things.”
Also helping the Nuggets has been a turn in the schedule. The Nuggets not only faced three teams under .500, they played those teams without their stars. Oklahoma City played the Nuggets without Kevin Durant. The Los Angeles Clippers played without Zach Randolph. New Jersey played without Devin Harris.
Two more teams at the bottom of their respective conferences remain, including tonight’s game, before the Nuggets (43-25) discover whether they have gained the confidence to beat some of the NBA’s best teams. Games against Portland, Utah, the Los Angeles Lakers, New Orleans and Dallas still loom.
But the Nuggets say they are taking it one game at a time. Billups credits harder play as a reason for the Nuggets’ success, as well as a new mind-set.
“I think we weren’t consistently worried about how every game is big,” Billups said. “We might think the Portland game or the Laker game is bigger (rather) than the Memphis game or a Minnesota Timberwolves game or something like that. But every game is the same. When it comes down to the grand scheme of things, you’re either going to put it in the win column or the loss column.”
Chris Dempsey: 303-954-1279 or cdempsey@denverpost.com
Denver at Memphis
6 p.m., ALT, KCKK 1510 AM
Spotlight on Marc Gasol: The Memphis center, and younger brother of Los Angeles Lakers star Pau Gasol, has quietly put together a solid rookie season with averages of 11.5 points and 7.6 rebounds. The 7-foot-1, 265-pound Gasol has scored in double figures eight consecutive games.
Nuggets: The Nuggets look to break a six-game road losing streak tonight. But is it in their heads? “Not really,” guard Chauncey Billups said. “Obviously we’ve struggled lately on the road, but it’s all about how you’re playing. Right now, I think we’re in a different spot. We’re playing good. We’re playing with a lot of confidence.” . . . Forward Renaldo Balkman (groin) said Tuesday he plans to play tonight against the Grizzlies. . . . Forward Kenyon Martin (back) said the Nuggets will continue their new strategy of playing him in the first half and sitting him out in the second. “I don’t like it, but in order for me to get ready for the playoffs and for the bigger games, that’s what I have to do right now,” Martin said.
Grizzlies: The Grizzlies have one of the NBA’s toughest schedules from tonight to the end of the season, with 12 games against teams with winning records. . . . Marc Gasol is averaging 16.3 points, 8.7 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.7 blocked shots, and 59.7 percent shooting from the field in March. . . . Guard O.J. Mayo leads all rookies in scoring at 18.7 ppg. Chris Dempsey, The Denver Post
