No Nugget is pronouncing the team cured. One win can’t do that. But what it can do is start to turn the tide.
The Nuggets’ victory over Portland late Thursday had everyone feeling there could be a turnaround. The postgame locker room was relaxed. Coach Adrian Dantley, who could not sleep Wednesday night, said Friday he slept well after the victory.
With six games left in the regular season, the Nuggets, currently the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference, are rebooting heading into tonight’s game against the Clippers. They are relearning the basics of why they were successful through the majority of the season until a recent 1-4 road trip.
“We are going in the right direction,” guard Chauncey Billups said. “We are at home. We have another game at home before we go on the road. You play yourself into that situation where you’re not playing good, and you’ve kind of got to play yourself out of it. It’s not just one game. You can’t just jump out of it. But we’re moving in the right direction.”
From a statistical standpoint, the Nuggets showed marked improvement against Portland. They shot a high percentage (49.4 percent), held Portland to a low percentage (41.3), shared the basketball (24 assists), and kept turnovers low (11).
But players say it was much more than just the victory that brought some life back into the team.
“When we play like that, we’re tough to beat,” Nene said. “Sometimes I think we need to see a couple of games like that, when we do well, why we play well. We need to ask ourselves why we play well. We need to share the ball. We need to have more than 20 assists. We need to play ‘D’.
“We need to make the next man better. When you make the next man better, you make yourself better. You sacrifice for the team. We did that. We have to realize how important the group (as a whole) is.”
The Nuggets are within striking distance of the Northwest Division — they trail Utah by a 1/2-game — and are close to the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference, although they would have to leapfrog the Jazz, Mavericks and Suns.
All they have to do is tie Utah to win the division, because the Nuggets have the tiebreaker by virtue of winning the season series. Dallas and Phoenix, meanwhile, own season-series tiebreakers over the Nuggets.
But right now, the Nuggets will settle for playing good basketball.
“We needed to stop the bleeding,” Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony said.
Chris Dempsey: 303-954-1279 or cdempsey@denverpost.com
NOTEBOOK
Nuggets: Forward Chris Andersen is a game-time decision for tonight’s game with a sprained left ankle. Andersen did not practice Friday and said he’ll test the ankle prior to the game. He didn’t sound optimistic. “We’ll see how it feels then,” Andersen said. “Maybe there’s a magical miracle thing that can happen before that time.” . . . Carmelo Anthony was asked last week by New York media if he liked playing at Madison Square Garden. He said yes, and that response led to New York media speculating he could be a good fit for the Knicks as a free agent in 2011. “I said, ‘Anybody would love to play in Madison Square Garden.’ That’s all I said.” Asked if he had thought about his future free-agent status, Anthony said: “I can’t think that far ahead. I’m just focused on this season and next season.”
Clippers: It’s become downright ugly in L.A. The Clippers won three games in March, and lost eight in a row at one point.
Spotlight on Steve Blake: He hasn’t donned a Nuggets uniform since 2007. But as Blake returns to town, fans may remember him as one of the more well-liked players when he was here. Blake, who was traded from Portland to the Clippers this season, is averaging 5.5 points and 5.7 assists in 22 games for L.A.
Race to the playoffs
The Nuggets gained a half-game on Northwest Division-leading Utah, which lost 106-92 to the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday. A breakdown of the Nuggets’ final six games:
Thursday
vs. Portland
W, 109-92
Today
vs. L.A. Clippers
7 p.m., ALT
Wednesday
at Okla. City
6 p.m., ALT2
Thursday
vs. L.A. Lakers
8:30 p.m., TNT
April 10
vs. San Antonio
7 p.m., ALT, NBATV
April 12
vs. Memphis
7 p.m., ALT
April 13
at Phoenix
8:30 p.m., ALT, TNT
