Nugget's Playing With 'Here We Go Again' Syndrome

(From an older post of mine:  If the Nuggets don't win, and win with smarts, OKC, Phoenix and the Clippers will ride our errors into a slide.  If we can start and end well, we might get the confidence to get back on a streak.  I don't really see us having a give and take on these games.  They will be boom or bust).

Bust it is.

The Nuggets have become the victim of their own success as teams are not taking them lightly.  Fortunately for our opponents, the Nuggets aren't taking themselves too seriously.  It's hard to imagine that a muscle strain would shut down Ty Lawson and his confidence, but they are both clearly strained still.  We knew he was valuable to the Nuggets, but with no one else who has the confidence to take late game shots, his absence has been painful.

This team has Coach Brian Shaw constantly switching bait and recasting his line into the waters for a bite.  He is a patient man (as most fisherman are), but his patience with some players is not paying off.  Okay, I'm talking about that darn Randy Foye again.

Here is the Rany (he's got no 'd') Foye problem.  If you sit him now you signal to every team that might need a shooter to forget about this one.  If he doesn't play we can't trade him, at least not for value and he is not exactly a cheap player to begin with.  All of the new players need a chance to prove themselves before we give up on a new investment.

J.J. Hickson is a keeper even though he never faced the basket one time when he received the ball in the paint last game.  A few games prior, he started to shoot and hit that mid-range shot.  Right now we need somebody, anybody, to take that shot as teams are forcing the Nuggets into a jump shooting team.

So the formula for the last few games is to turn the game into a jump shooting contest because the Nuggets are not confident enough in themselves that they can match any team shot for shot. They actually have the talent to do it now, but until they know it, it matters little.  Team's are now playing the Nuggets into the 'here we go again' syndrome. When the game starts to turn late, you can see it in the way they take the ball out of bounds, and the lack of urgency of their
assault on the rim.

The nature of a young team is the propensity for boom or bust scenarios.  Maturity teaches us to give a consistent effort throughout the game and let the chips fall where they may.  These moments of the season require a collective fight or kind scheduling.  Tonight we get the Golden State (jump shooting) Warriors.

The schedule is not kind.