You don’t get to 1,000 wins without the first one, and coaches worry about every game along the way.
George Karl can get to 1,000 tonight, but dampening the occasion just a tad is a team not playing the type of basketball he would like to see.
The occasion may cause some to let it slide, but not Karl. You don’t win at this level without sweating the details. As the Nuggets get set to face Charlotte, he would like his team to pay better attention to the little things.
“I’m pretty sure 13-6 is pretty good for where we are right now, but we’ve got to play a little better basketball to win on the road,” Karl said. “We’ve got to be a little smarter, a little tougher, and I think we’ll be tested in all of these games.”
The Nuggets have won seven consecutive games. But the team’s nature to relax after gaining a big lead is growing from a small annoyance to a full-blown concern.
“(It’s) sometimes turnovers, sometimes shot selection, sometimes the lack of focus,” guard Arron Afflalo said. “We just have to focus on all three and take care of the ball, keep the pace up and take good shots and understand the other team is going to play with some desperation. Keep your defense up.”
The Nuggets held on to beat Memphis by one point Sunday night after blowing a 21-point lead in the second quarter. They entered the fourth quarter down by one before Afflalo and Nene rescued the Nuggets from what would have been an embarrassing home loss.
“It’s hard,” Nene said. “We’ve been playing good, we don’t need to change anything. But sometimes we complicate things. We must be aggressive, play together, pass the ball to the person with an open shot, and we’ll have success.”
Simple? Maybe. If the Nuggets do those things, Karl will celebrate one big-time victory tonight.
“It would be great, he deserves it,” Afflalo said. “He has been coaching a long time, and he is a great coach, a great motivator. I am very happy for him. We won’t stop at 1,000, and we will keep it going for him.”
Chris Dempsey: 303-954-1279 or cdempsey@denverpost.com
Denver at Charlotte
5 p.m. tonight, ALT, 950 AM
Spotlight on Stephen Jackson: He has had his mouthy moments with referees, but Jackson continues to play solid basketball otherwise. He has scored at least 20 points in six of his last 12 games and is averaging 18.6 points during that stretch.
Nuggets: Forward Chris Andersen will miss 10 to 14 days with a small fracture in his lower vertebrae. . . . The Nuggets are 3-3 all time against the Bobcats at Charlotte. . . . The Nuggets have won three of the last four games against Charlotte.
Bobcats: General manager Rod Higgins is the father of University of Colorado standout guard Cory Higgins. . . . Point guard D.J. Augustin is one of the best in the NBA at taking care of the ball. He ranked first in the league at the beginning of the week in assist-to-turnover ratio. He has 134 assists this season and just 33 turnovers. Chris Dempsey, The Denver Post
