Nuggets' slippage on defense a "big concern" as Denver seeks balance on both ends of the floor

Michael Malone summed up the general feeling around his team pretty well as the Nuggets passed the Christmas Day landmark on the NBA calendar earlier this week.

“Our guys are great. They understand that we’re not satisfied being 21-9, 7-1 (in the last eight games),” Malone said Friday. “We can still play so much better and that’s the scary thing about it. I think we can be scary good.”

Many around the team and league, like TNT’s Charles Barkley, would agree. Barkley gave this harsh summation of the Nuggets’ championship hopes on Inside The NBA Thursday night.

“It’s not real. It’s like some of them diamonds you give people,” Barkley said. “They not real.”

It’s likely that a large portion of the the casual NBA fanbase nodded along with Barkley’s assertion. If you’ve only tuned into the Nuggets for their six games on ESPN or TNT so far this season (opening night at Portland, at New Orleans on Halloween, versus Brooklyn, at Boston, at home versus Portland, and against the Pelicans on Christmas Day) you watched Denver go 3-3 with a trio of wins, two over the Trail Blazers and one against the Nets. You also saw two losses to the Pelicans who have just nine total wins on the season.

“The record that we have, I don’t even think we’re playing that great,” Malone said.

The Nuggets aren’t playing that great, but are still 21-9 and currently hold the second-seed in the West. Denver also has wins over the Heat, 76ers, Rockets, Celtics, and Lakers (without LeBron James). Nikola Jokic opened the regular season in an offensive slump but is averaging 22 points on elite shooting numbers (52.9 FG%, 48.6 3P%), 10.3 rebounds, and 8 assists over the Nuggets’ last eight games. Along with Jokic’s resurgence, Denver’s offense has also rebounded to post the league’s best Offensive Rating over two weeks.

But the Nuggets’ offensive surge has come with its drawbacks. Denver’s defense which the Nuggets hung their hat on over the first trimester of the regular season has slipped. Overall the Nuggets’ defense is still holding steady at third in the NBA but over the last eight games Denver is giving up 108.4 points per 100 possessions, good for 15th overall.

“Its a big concern for me,” said Malone after the Nuggets allowed the Pelicans to shoot above 40% from the field and 3 in New Orleans’ 112-100 Christmas Day win. “Because earlier in the year that was our calling card.”

“Our defense has taken a giant step backwards.”

The Nuggets are seeking balance like the championship teams of year’s past have had. Take a look at how the last five teams to hoist the Larry O’Brien trophy ranked in offensive and defensive efficiency in the regular season.

2018-19: Toronto Raptors (5th in offense, 5th in defense)

2017-18: Golden State Warriors (3rd in offense, 11th in defense)

2016-17: Golden State Warriors (1st in offense, 2nd in defense)

2015-16: Cleveland Cavaliers (3rd in offense, 10th in defense)

2014-15 Golden State Warriors (2nd in offense, 1st in defense)

A top-1o offense and defense, which the Nuggets achieved last season (Denver had the seventh-best offense and 10th-best defense) is pretty much a requirement for a championship-level team.

“If we want to be an average team that’s OK. We’re going to ride our offense,” Malone said. “If we want to be a team that has aspirations of getting back to the Western Conference semifinals and further it doesn’t matter, defense has to be a constant. And it carried the day early and it’s great the offense has caught up. But if we can play at both ends at a high level we become that much more of a formidable team.”

The Nuggets’ rebounding has fallen off too. Denver has been one of the better rebounding teams in the league over the last few seasons, and is again this year. But as the offense has taken off over the last eight games, the Nuggets’ rebounding, especially on the defensive end of the floor, has slid along with their defense.

Denver has fallen from the fifth-best defensive rebounding team a season ago to 16th this year, and over the last eight games the Nuggets are only grabbing 70% of their available defensive rebounds, the fifth-worst mark in the NBA over that stretch.

Against the Pelicans, the Nuggets allowed New Orleans to grab 14 offensive rebounds. They were ill-timed too. Six of the Pelicans’ offensive rebounds Wednesday came in the fourth quarter.

No Pelicans’ offensive rebound may have been more back-breaking than this one with around eight minutes remaining in the fourth. It’s a a tough bounce with Holiday’s shot careening off the side of the backboard but the Nuggets went from down one with the ball to down four just like that.

“We ball watched a little bit too much,” Paul Millsap said. “We’ve just got to get more physical.”

The Nuggets have an opportunity to right the ship and find a good balance between their offense and defense Saturday versus the Grizzlies (3:00 p.m. MT/ALT). But it won’t be a walk in the park against Memphis, who enters its matchup with Denver at just 12-20 overall.

The Grizzlies are the league’s 10th-best offense over their last 10 games with rookie Ja Morant (16.6 points, 6.3 assists), along with Jaron Jackson Jr. (20.7 points on 50.3 FG%, 42.9 3P%), and Dillon Brooks (16.8 points, 38.9 3P%), carrying the offensive load.

“How do we find a way to keep the defense where it was for the majority of the early season while still keeping the offense firing on all cylinders?” Malone asked.