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DENVER — After winning just two of six games during a ten-day road trip that featured five opponents not expected to make the playoffs, the Nuggets find themselves in a dark place. Denver’s record now stands at 9-16 on the season and although the playoffs are still months away, their outlook at the moment is bleak.

While injuries and youth have presented many obstacles, they are not the main reason for the Nuggets racking up losses. The biggest issue that has kept head coach Michael Malone up at night is the lack of effort and competitive fire from his team.

All of this came to a head after the Nuggets were blown out by the Dallas Mavericks, one of the worst teams in the league earlier this week to end their six-game trip.

“It is not what any of us envisioned on that road trip, no disrespect to the teams that we played, but just look at the records that we went against,” Malone said at practice Wednesday. “The most disconcerting thing about the road trip for me is not the two and four record. It is the fact that we got down 29 points to Brooklyn before cutting it to 3. The fact that we got down 25 or 26 at Dallas. To me, it is alarming because that is a warning sign, or an ominous sign, if you will, of a lack of competitive nature and fire.”

Most of Denver’s issues this season have come on the defensive end of the floor. During the six-game road trip, the Nuggets gave up 106 points per game while playing many of the league’s bottom-tiered offenses. The low point of the trip was giving up 112 points in a loss to the Mavericks, who average a league-worst 93.5 points per game.

“Our one-on-one defense in that game and our lack of fight or resistance was alarming. Really was alarming.” Malone said of Denver’s loss in Dallas. “We addressed that today (at practice) and hopefully it is a lot better tomorrow night. Defensively right now we just have no resistance and no fight.”

Malone understands everything in the NBA is not just winning and losing. It is how you play that matters the most.

“I can take losing,” Malone said. “To be in the NBA, like Flip Saunders said, you have to learn how to lose but how you lose is so much more important. I hated us the other night, really hated us, and that is unacceptable. It really is.”

The Nuggets’ youth makes winning at the NBA level an uphill battle. More than winning, getting the Nuggets to consistently play with energy and focus is priority No. 1.

“Wins and losses will come. Our culture is not based solely on wins and losses. It can’t be that,” Malone said. “We are too young to say that everything is based on solely wins and losses. Our culture has to be based on competitive forces and we haven’t had that consistently enough. That is my biggest concern.”

The Nuggets are just two losses back of the eighth-seeded Portland Trailblazers, who Denver hosts Thursday. If they are to turn the corner and start playing up to their talent level it will be because they’ve decided, as a team, to play with urgency, passion, and fire that Malone is searching for.