If the Nuggets fancy themselves a playoff team, the winning must start now, guard Ty Lawson said.
Asked whether it’s too early to panic, with the Nuggets off to a 1-3 start entering Friday night’s game against the Cleveland Cavaliers at the Pepsi Center, Lawson said: “I don’t think so. Our next three or four games are tough, and I know we don’t want to be 1-7, being like, ‘Oh, we’re trying to get into the playoffs.’ We need to get it together right now.”
Lawson didn’t play against the Cavaliers because of soreness in his left ankle.
LeBron James-led Cleveland also was 1-3 entering Friday, and stories of discontent were swirling around James’ team. Winning, of course, would cure all ills for a team that’s expected to contend for an NBA championship this season.
The Nuggets, meanwhile, were projected to battle for one of the last playoff berths in the Western Conference.
“This could be the win that turns our season around,” Lawson said before Friday’s game.
Lawson is off to a slow start this season. The former North Carolina star is averaging only 12.8 points and shooting just 38.2 percent from the field. Last season, he averaged a career-high 17.6 points.
“I don’t think that you panic,” said second-year Denver coach Brian Shaw. “We’re 1-3; it’s not where we want to be. But there has to be a sense of urgency, not panic. I haven’t seen that urgency, and it starts with (Lawson). He’s our first line of offense, he’s our first line of defense. If he looks at his own numbers and his own performance in these (opening) four games, he’s played one aggressive half of basketball — and that was the second half in Oklahoma City.
“The fact that we are struggling the way we are right now, it’s a mirror of how he’s played. It affects Kenneth (Faried), and it affects Arron (Afflalo) and everybody else on the floor who need him to set the table for us. So I just want him to be more aggressive, because how he goes, that’s how we go.”
