{"id":620391,"date":"2026-02-23T19:00:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T19:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/620391\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T19:00:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T19:00:19","slug":"why-david-adelman-brought-up-nba-standings-to-nuggets-after-all-star-break","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/620391\/","title":{"rendered":"Why David Adelman brought up NBA standings to Nuggets after All-Star break"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 The Nuggets maintained tunnel vision as they winced through the pain and limped through January. By mid-February, David Adelman wanted them to be exposed to the glaring light of the sun.<\/p>\n

As they returned from the All-Star break and met as a team last week, Adelman addressed his players with a nod to the Western Conference standings for the first time. He had tried to steer clear of such a macro topic during a multi-week period when most of the rotation was injured, including the three-time MVP.<\/a> He barely had time to check the standings himself while preparing for games without a center<\/a>. But now that the Nuggets were starting to resemble the original version of themselves, their head coach felt a motivational zoom-out was warranted.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust so that we\u2019re aware of how things are shaping out in the West,\u201d Julian Strawther told The Denver Post. \u201cObviously, I think everybody who follows basketball knows how good the West is. So (it was about) just understanding that there\u2019s no difference between a game on a Monday against a below-.500 team and a game on prime time against the Thunder. There\u2019s no difference because it\u2019s gonna shape the standings up the same way, with how close everything is. Every game is important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Denver\u2019s loss on Sunday afternoon was a mix of those two things. In cable television terms, it was prime time real estate that had been occupied by football for the last five months. An ABC matinee broadcast against a major-market team. In basketball terms, it was supposed to be a snoozer. The Warriors, minus Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler, Kristaps Porzingis and Draymond Green.<\/p>\n

Warriors 128, Nuggets 117<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It meant as much to the standings as the next three games will \u2014 three more nationally televised games against a lineup of contenders. Boston on Wednesday, Oklahoma City on Friday, Minnesota on Sunday. Denver (36-22) woke up on Monday morning in third place in the West, where it has spent most of the last two months, but with only a three-game cushion over the seventh-place Phoenix Suns. And seventh place means a spot in the Play-In Tournament.\n<\/p>\n

Hence, Adelman\u2019s point to bring attention to the standings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think (the message) was to take a real look at where we\u2019re at, obviously, how close. What Phoenix did yesterday, what they\u2019re doing,\u201d the first-year head coach said. \u201cObviously, OKC is the standard right now, but just to take a clean look, because we really had ignored it throughout the season. And we had the injuries, all those things. I didn\u2019t want to look at the standings. I just wanted to look at the next day. \u2026 I thought it was unfair to the guys to look at it (in a big-picture) way.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re fully healthy, the long-term outlook is easier to talk about. Now that you hit the second half of the season, it\u2019s time to be honest about where you stand and what you could or couldn\u2019t accomplish depending on how focused you are these last 25 games. So we looked at it. We talked about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"WarriorsWarriors guard Moses Moody (4) drives in against Nuggets forward Christian Braun (0) during the first half Sunday in San Francisco. (AP Photo\/Kelley L Cox)
\nA back-loaded home schedule<\/p>\n

Ironically, the Nuggets (36-22) managed to hold their ground admirably without Jokic for a month. Their position in the West hasn\u2019t slipped since he returned, but their quality of play has. After getting outscored 33-16 in the fourth quarter by Golden State, Denver is 3-6 in its last nine games, with a 14-15 record in games involving clutch time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to get better,\u201d Jokic said. \u201cI don\u2019t know what it is, but we need to figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a lot of it this year has just been not holding our spots,\u201d Christian Braun said. \u201cNot being tough enough down the stretch. And that\u2019s on all of us, top to bottom. \u2026 It has nothing to do with our process down the stretch. It has nothing to do with anything besides, we need to hold our spots.\u201d<\/p>\n

Four consecutive turnovers lowlighted Denver\u2019s late collapse at Golden State. Braun\u2019s instinct in the locker room afterward was correct. The Nuggets have the third-best turnover rate in the NBA as a whole this season, but their turnover rate on clutch possessions ranks 21st. Then again, they\u2019re also 19th in clutch rebounding rate, 29th in clutch defensive rating and 13th in clutch 3-point percentage at 33%. Overall, they\u2019re the most efficient outside shooting team in the league (39.4%).<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m definitely concerned, because we are losing the games,\u201d Jokic said of the clutch trend. \u201cWe are losing the games, and we are not creating open looks. So that\u2019s something that we need to change. \u2026 Turnovers and just creating open looks. And taking it. If you\u2019re open, just shoot it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The good news for Denver as it prepares for postseason basketball: 15 of the last 24 games and nine of the last 12 are at Ball Arena. It\u2019s a back-loaded home schedule at the end of a season dotted with bizarre travel routes.<\/p>\n

The bad news: 14 of those games are against opponents currently seeded in the top six of either conference. Three matchups remain with the Thunder, two with the Spurs, two with the Lakers. That was also a key topic when Adelman spoke to the team last week about the home stretch.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was more about the strength of schedule, the teams we\u2019re gonna have to play the second half,\u201d he said, \u201cand then making a point to them that beating a team like OKC and then losing to a team that\u2019s struggling, it all means the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nuggets almost slipped into the Play-In Tournament last year with a late four-game losing streak that culminated with Michael Malone\u2019s firing in April. Adelman took over on short notice, and they cobbled together three impressive wins to end the regular season.<\/p>\n

In six of the last seven years, they\u2019ve finished fourth place or higher in the West \u2014 the benchmark for hosting a first-round series. This season, they\u2019ve been in fourth or higher since Nov. 3, an ongoing streak of 112 days.<\/p>\n

\"NuggetsNuggets forward\/guard Bruce Brown (11) controls the ball against Warriors guard Brandin Podziemski (2) during the second half of a game Sunday in San Francisco. (AP Photo\/Kelley L Cox)
\n\u2018The next game is the most important one\u2019<\/p>\n

The standings have been so muddled around them that projecting playoff matchups this early has been a fool\u2019s errand. One potential source of motivation, though, is that Denver would avoid a hypothetical Oklahoma City series until the Western Conference Finals if it can finish in second or third place.<\/p>\n

Not that any of that matters if the current slump continues. After getting punked by Golden State, the Nuggets were almost as close to the eighth-place Warriors (5.5 games) as they were to the second-place Spurs (five).<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t look at it,\u201d Jokic said. \u201cI think the next game is the most important one. That\u2019s my mindset. I think if you\u2019re winning and you think about the next game, you\u2019re gonna be good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there needs to be urgency regardless,\u201d Braun said. \u201c\u2026 Whether you look at it or whether you don\u2019t, you have to win games. You have to find a way to win games, whoever\u2019s out there. We\u2019ve gotta be tougher. We\u2019ve gotta play together. That\u2019s all of us. We\u2019ve gotta be more together. So I don\u2019t think it really matters. I mean, if you want to watch it, watch it. If you don\u2019t, don\u2019t. Either way, you\u2019ve gotta win the next game. So no excuses from us. We know how tight the race is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want more Nuggets news? Sign up for the Nuggets Insider to get all our NBA analysis.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 The Nuggets maintained tunnel vision as they winced through the pain and limped through January.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3781],"tags":[611,2276,7,561,765,250,301,187,3943,200,3636,1035,313,763,871,165,4231,252,6,302,162,66,574,3460],"class_list":["post-620391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-denver-nuggets","tag-abc","tag-ball-arena","tag-basketball","tag-christian-braun","tag-colorado","tag-david-adelman","tag-denver","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-denvernuggets","tag-draymond-green","tag-injuries","tag-injury","tag-jimmy-butler","tag-julian-strawther","tag-kristaps-porzingis","tag-latest-headlines","tag-michael-malone","tag-more-nuggets-news","tag-nba","tag-nuggets","tag-san-francisco","tag-sports","tag-western-conference","tag-western-conference-finals"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116121491712353107","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}