If I’m a Nugget anything — fan, season-ticket holder, owner, coach, even just someone with Nugget in his name, like Saul Snuggetstein — I’d be embarrassed by the Nuggets.
Ty Lawson, of course, embodies this. Since his derailed travel plans after the all-star break, the face of the franchise has averaged 9.8 points per game. In Sunday’s loss to New Orleans, Lawson with five points and six shot attempts. He was minus-10, while opposing guard Tyreke Evans was plus-17 with 22 points. Now, the Pelicans aren’t bad — they’re in playoff contention — but on Sunday they were without superstar Anthony Davis, as well as Jrue Holiday (15.2 ppg) and Ryan Anderson (14.6 ppg). The way Denver played down the stretch, New Orleans could have played Jamaal Magloire and probably won.
Clearly, the next coach of the Denver Nuggets will need to maximize the home-court advantage that Pepsi Center provides. The Nuggets have lost 10 straight games at home. Two seasons ago, Denver lost three home games total.
At practice Monday, both Lawson and coach Brian Shaw responded to The Denver Post’s piece that during last Friday’s game, the players broke a huddle by saying: “1-2-3 … 6 weeks!” This is in reference to the dismal season finally ending in just six weeks.
Lawson and Shaw steadfastly said the time duration was in reference to the last time Denver won a home game — and thus it was a rallying cry.
Duly noted.
Still, what a mess. I think the people I feel most bad for are the Altitude broadcasters. Since their company is Kroenke-owned, they can’t be truly critical of the Nuggets, even when the Nuggets look like the 2002 Nuggets. On Sunday, Denver lost by “only” seven points and Altitude’s Todd Romero opened the postgame show with: “Nuggets with a solid effort. … Some great moments. … But in the end, just not quite enough, 99-92 is the final.”
On Monday, I saw this quote from Wizards post player Nene: “I don’t want to talk about the Bulls. You know I hate them. You can put that.”
What warped world do we live in in which the perpetually passive Nene is playing passionately — and J.R. Smith is a key player on a title contender — yet Ty Lawson is slumping and sulking and stinking?
Christopher Dempsey wrote Monday that the Nuggets will shorten Lawson’s minutes in the next six weeks, to prevent wear and tear. But man, if the Nuggets are going all-in on trying to get the best draft pick possible, maybe they should play Lawson as much as possible?
CHEW ON THIS
• It looks like our old pal JaVale McGee will still get his full contract next season — and get to play in the playoffs,
• Well, looks like about why Duke’s Rasheed Sulaimon was the first-ever Duke player kicked off the team. It’s not pretty.
• Did you catch the I’m almost all-in. It’s fascinating, to say the least. Will Forte plays the only man to survive a virus that killed off humanity. But being alone drives him insane — he yearns for human contact — and so he decides to commit suicide. Just then, he sees fire from afar. Sure enough, it’s from another human!
Yet, she’s so outrageously annoying — making him stop at stop signs, not park in handicapped spots, pronouncing tomato as “toe-mah-tow” — that he yearns for the time when he was the only living human. It’s pretty creative and quirky. And the last woman on earth is played by , the 37-year-old comedienne best-known for her work on “Flight of the Conchords.”
• And finally, happy 84th birthday to , who I swore I spotted in San Diego last week, but it ended up it just being some guy.
Benjamin Hochman: bhochman@denverpost.com or
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