Playing the Dallas Mavericks in consecutive games gave the Nuggets an opportunity to break out the P-word. And they were loving it.
“It’s good practice for what it’s like when you get to the playoffs,” said first-year Denver coach Brian Shaw.
No, the P-word wasn’t “practice.”
“They are going to make adjustments, we’ll make adjustments,” Shaw said of playing the Mavericks again so soon. “The energy will be different because now they will be on their home court; they are not coming off a back-to-back (set). So the challenge for us will be to not just relax because we won a game and think that, OK, if we just don’t take as many 3s, we should do better against them. It’s going to be tougher. They are going to play better and we’re going to have to play better.”
Denver (6-6) beat the Mavericks 102-100 at the Pepsi Center on Saturday night.
The Nuggets, winners in six of their past nine games, will be trying to snap a two-game road losing streak Monday night. Also, a win in Dallas would get them over .500 for the first time this season.
Getting back to .500 on Saturday after an 0-3 start pleased the Nuggets, Kenneth Faried said, but it’s not ideal.
“It means a lot,” he said, “but we don’t want to be getting back to .500 every time. We want to get over this hump. And when we go to Dallas, we’ve really got to focus and get over this hump.”
To do that, the Nuggets will have to iron out a couple of wrinkles.
Dallas’ zone defense Saturday caused problems for the Nuggets, who chose to combat it by shooting without conscience after building a 17-point lead. Denver hoisted 32 shots behind the 3-point line, starting out hot from there but missing more and more as Dallas battled back. The volume of 3-point shots infuriated Shaw.
“It’s like the playoffs,” Randy Foye said. “Usually when you come in (the locker room), you usually see another team (on the video screen), like Dallas playing the Utah Jazz. But next time when we go in the locker room before the game, we’re going to see the Denver Nuggets playing the Dallas Mavericks. So you can critique and pick apart the film yourself. It’s a good challenge for us.”
Christopher Dempsey: cdempsey@denverpost.com or
DENVER AT DALLAS
6:30 p.m. Monday, ALT, 950 AM
Spotlight on Dirk Nowitzki: The Nuggets learned Saturday night in a close-shave win over Dallas at the Pepsi Center that Nowitzki remains capable of scoring big baskets for the Mavericks. He had 27 points and nine rebounds in the first of these two meetings, a typical Nowitzki performance.
NOTEBOOK
Nuggets: Ty Lawson was asked what he thought the Nuggets would see Monday night from the Mavericks. “More zone (defense), for sure,” he said. “Their zone was effective in slowing us down when we were in the half court, so we’ll see a lot more of that.” Lawson jammed the pinkie finger on his right hand Saturday. He expects to play with the finger taped Monday.
Mavericks: The Nuggets did a good job keeping Dallas center Samuel Dalembert off the boards Saturday. He grabbed only three rebounds in 21 minutes. But Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said Dalembert is slowed by ribs that are “banged up; they’ve been banged up since Monday or Wednesday, I don’t remember which game. He’s playing hurt. A lot of guys wouldn’t be out there right now, so the fact that he’s out there means a lot.”
Chris Dempsey, The Denver Post
