It’s never a good time to draw the San Antonio Spurs.
Especially when you’re battered, bruised, exhausted and generally not playing well — which describes the Nuggets.
Denver’s initial burst of energy Sunday night gave way to tired legs in San Antonio’s 99-91 victory at the Pepsi Center, with a large contingent of Spurs fans on hand.
The Nuggets’ current stretch of games was billed to be difficult, and it’s lived up to it. Back-to-back games against the Rockets and Spurs produced two losses over the weekend. The Nuggets get the Rockets again Wednesday, then draw Blake Griffin and the Los Angeles Clippers after that.
And if this current downturn looks familiar, that’s only because it should. The Nuggets are 1-6 in their past seven games, meaning their season has gone like this: 1-6, 8-2, 1-6.
“It’s very frustrating,” coach Brian Shaw said. “It’s been the way things have gone for us. When we get on a good streak, something happens and it’s almost like we forget the things that got us to win those five games in a row that we won at whatever point, and then we have to kind of go back to the drawing board and figure it out again.”
Guard Arron Afflalo scored 31 points in the loss, keeping the Nuggets in the game, though they never got closer than five points during the second half.
“It kind of falls on players a little bit, and your mental approach,” Afflalo said. “Part of the consistency of a team is the consistency of the individuals.”
A glimpse at the score by quarters provides an accurate look at what the roller-coaster Nuggets are. Ahead 22-20 after one quarter Sunday, they were outscored 25-12 in the second quarter. A more energized third quarter gave way to a fourth quarter in which they simply didn’t have enough energy to come all the way back. Not helping the situation was the loss of Kenneth Faried for the game because of an ankle injury.
The start of games hasn’t been a huge problem. Sustaining their starts has been an issue. The second quarter has been a drain on the team all season. The Nuggets have scored fewer points in the second quarter (579) than in any other, with the fourth quarter a close second (590).
And yet, even at 10-14, the Nuggets aren’t buried in the Western Conference standings. They are two games from the eighth and last playoff spot because the team occupying it right now — Phoenix — has a losing record at 12-13.
Things get tougher, though, with a now healthy Oklahoma City steamrolling through its schedule after a 5-13 start.
Unless the Nuggets start playing better, there won’t be any playoff talk in Denver.
“You see OKC creeping up, and you know they’re not going to be a .500 team, so that’s what I’m worried about,” said point guard Ty Lawson. “Trying to keep pace with OKC, because they’re going to be the ones we’re probably chasing.”
Christopher Dempsey: cdempsey@denverpost.com or
