When we last checked in with the Houston Rockets, they had defeated the Los Angeles Clippers in Staples Center. They left the previous weekend with a justifiable sense that — four-game winning streak in tow — they had begun to turn the corner.
One weekend later, that notion lies in ruins, as the Rockets — following a humiliating home-court loss to the Brooklyn Nets — dropped another game on Friday night.
Yet, as much as it’s easy to frame this Friday night game solely in terms of how the Rockets are falling short, one has to begin to pay (more) attention to how Houston’s victorious opponent is performing this season.
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We’re only nine games into this journey; 73 games remain. In that period of time, the Denver Nuggets and Emmanuel Mudiay will learn a lot of harsh lessons. The journey will not be smooth, the progression anything but linear and unceasingly optimistic. The Nuggets will doubt themselves. They will have to play teams much better than Houston is now.
Yet, in two games against the Rockets — the very team which took on the project of Ty Lawson — the Nuggets are 2-0, silencing their former teammate.
If you thought that an early-season ambush at the Houston Toyota Center (there is more than one Toyota Center in the country, just so you know…) would lead to a course correction on Friday night in Denver’s Pepsi Center, the Nuggets told their opponent and the NBA that it’s going to be tougher to get rid of them.
Indeed, beyond the fact that Denver stood its ground against Houston and Lawson lies the fact that through nine games, the Nuggets stand on the sunshine side of the .500 divide. They are 5-4, with losses coming against Golden State and Oklahoma City.
The point is an obvious one, but that doesn’t mean it should be withheld from print: While it’s quite safe to write off the Los Angeles Lakers, Philadelphia 76ers, and Brooklyn Nets just nine games into the season, one can’t do that with Denver. The Nuggets might hit a wall in January, but they have not become one of a handful of NBA teams whose seasons — at least in terms of legitimate playoff aspirations — have ended just two and a half weeks into this 82-game parade.
With Kenneth Faried snagging important rebounds — as he is wont to do, such as in the week’s earlier win over Milwaukee — and Danilo Gallinari pouring on the points (as he did against Houston, with 27), the Nuggets have multiple ways in which to win games. Fareed’s flinty forcefulness and Gallinari’s fabulous finesse, combined with timely contributions from the likes of Will Barton (26 points against Houston) and the aforementioned Mr. Mudiay, have enabled the Nuggets to strike gold more often than not through nine outings.
No, it’s a little too early to talk playoffs in the Rockies, but can we acknowledge — especially with Sacramento at a much lower place in the West standings — that Mike Malone can coach a little bit? Denver’s firing of George Karl was understandable, but it needed to be followed by a big-time hire. Brian Shaw had potential at the time he was hired; Malone’s brief improvement of the Kings gave the Nuggets the ability to say that he was a man worth trusting in this post-Shaw rebuild.
The Denver story is hardly a finished one. A cemented ascendance in the West is no sure thing — not with 73 games still to go.
However, the early returns clearly confirm one thing: Unlike a few NBA teams (in L.A., Philly and Brooklyn), the Nuggets are surpassing expectations and proving to be a lot more competitive than many people thought.
That, in itself, is what an organization in the Nuggets’ position needed to see — and say — on the morning of Nov. 14.
For now, that’s pretty good.
