Nuggets rookie Gary Harris guards Dallas’ Monta Ellis during Wednesday night’s game at the Pepsi Center. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
DALLAS — On Wednesday night, Brian Shaw was a frustrated Nuggets coach after watching his team part like the Red Sea on many occasions defensively, allowing repeated drives to the rim, even though his team nabbed a victory over the Mavericks. And even though they held Dallas to 41 percent from the field, which isn’t shabby.
But the Nuggets, through their five-game winning streak, have been successful largely because, for the second significant stretch this season their defense has tightened. They are a plus-11.6 during the stretch, holding opponents to 98.2 points per game. The Nuggets are 10-2 this season when holding opponents under 100 points.
In the streak, they are holding opponents to 43 percent from the field, but the Nuggets’ best work has been defending the 3-point line. They are yielding just 30.2 percent from the arc, only giving up 21 points from there during the stretch and that has made a huge difference. The team is up about one percent in defensive rebounding percentage, meaning the Nuggets are clearing the boards a bit more often after shots are missed, cutting down on opponents’ second and third chance opportunities.
“There’s been a lot better attention to detail,” Shaw said. “It’s what we’ve been looking for and asking for.
“We’ve consciously started to pick up our defense further up the court. So we’re jumping teams in the backcourt, we’re able to get turnovers and turn that into offense for us and that’s something that we weren’t doing early on.”
A huge part of the equation has been the play of rookie center Jusuf Nurkic. The per 48 statistics when he is on or off the court are a Grand Canyon-sized chasm. When he’s on the court, opponents are averaging just 82.1 points per 48 minutes. When Nurkic is off, that balloons to 112.8. The Nuggets are a plus-35.6 during this streak when he’s on the court and a minus-9.9 when he’s off. He’s holding players he’s guarding under their season field goal percentage by a collective 6.5 percent, according to NBA stats.
“Juka playing more has a lot to do with (the defensive success) because of his ability to get deflections an block shots and do things on the defensive end,” Shaw said. “He’s rebounding the ball as well.”
It has all equaled a Nuggets team that because of it is giving itself a chance to win every night. And while there are detail items to continue to clean up, Shaw and the Nuggets coaching staff are pleased with the direction that end of the court is headed.
Follow Chris Dempsey on Twitter @dempseypost or email him at cdempsey@denverpost.com
