Nuggets guard Ty Lawson, during the team’s home loss to Charlotte on Jan. 31. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Each home loss becomes another weight added to an already weary Nuggets team. And the pressure to stop the bleeding increases exponentially with each slow, sad, angry and frustrated walk off of the Pepsi Center court.
How much pressure is there to halt the Nuggets’ current eight-game home losing streak?
“A lot of pressure,” Nuggets coach Brian Shaw conceded.
Tonight’s game against Utah is the latest chance for the Nuggets to stop what is quickly becoming an historic losing skid. Currently, the eight straight losses are the most consecutive home losses since 1998, and it is the third-longest home losing streak in team history.
These Nuggets don’t want to be the team to set a new franchise mark for home futility, but they are headed in that direction.
Asked if the anxiety is building with all of the home losses, Danilo Gallinari said, “maybe a little bit.”
“We’ve got to start winning either at home or away,” Gallo said. “And we’ve got to start with the next game. We cannot keep losing like this.”
Once one of the NBA’s most-feared home court advantages, the Nuggets have fallen back to earth at the Pepsi Center in the last two seasons. Since winning a franchise-record 38 home games in the 2012-13 season, the Nuggets haven’t won 38 home games in the last two seasons combined. They are 34-35 in that span, which includes this season’s 12-16 mark. The Nuggets went 22-19 at the Pepsi Center last season.
With 13 home games left, the Nuggets have to go 9-4 in order to avoid having their first losing home record since 2002-03. That team finished 13-28 at home.
Shaw talked about the Nuggets’ challenge to win home games — and fast.
“What starts to happen is guys start to look forward to playing on the road because the home crowd starts to get antsy, and things don’t go well then they start to get on us,” Shaw said. “And especially if it seems like we’re not hustling or coming up with loose balls and things of that nature. Until we change that, the results are not going to change.”
Follow Chris Dempsey on Twitter @dempseypost or email him at cdempsey@denverpost.com
