The Denver Nuggets suffered a tough loss at Memphis on Wednesday night, but they don’t have time to dwell on it with the Toronto Raptors in town on Friday.
Denver (42-28) fell to the lottery-bound Grizzlies in a makeup game that was postponed on Jan. 25. The loss dropped the Nuggets to sixth in the Western Conference with 12 games left in their regular season.
They feel like they’re playing well despite a 7-8 record since the All-Star break. Denver has suffered close losses — two in overtime and two others by three points or fewer — and it has not won more than two in a row since mid-January.
“We’ve been in some weird ones throughout, where it’s like, we wish we would have closed it,” said Cam Johnson, who is averaging 17.6 points over the last five games. “And right now, it’s one of those situations where if we had closed some of those, we would be in a little bit better of a position. But it’s a building process. You just want to peak at the right time in this league.”
Injuries have played a part in the struggles but with the return of Peyton Watson from a strained hamstring imminent, the Nuggets will have their full rotation available for the first time since the beginning of the season.
Tough back-to-backs have also contributed to Denver’s inconsistency. The team routed Philadelphia on Tuesday night but didn’t land in Memphis until 4:30 a.m. because of flight delays. Nikola Jokic, who leads the NBA in rebounding (12.6) and assists (10.5), tied a career-high with 10 turnovers against Memphis. His 3.9 turnovers this season are also a career high.
Toronto (39-29) comes to town on a three-game winning streak. The Raptors are fifth in the Eastern Conference and will have to navigate this current five-game road trip to maintain or improve their seed.
“The past three games have been a very good turning point for us,” RJ Barrett said after scoring 23 points in a 139-109 win at Chicago on Wednesday night. “We had a little lull there, trying to figure things out and we’ve figured it out. We’ve seen what we need to do and we’ve done it for the past three games. So now, having figured that out, we just have to try to do that consistently.”
Toronto is led by Brandon Ingram, who is averaging 21.9 points in his first season with the Raptors. Barrett, at 19 points a game, is second and Scottie Barnes is third on the team with an 18.7 average.
The Nuggets won the first meeting 106-103 in Toronto on Dec. 31 in a game that lacked a top player for each team. Jokic had suffered a left knee injury two nights before and missed 16 games while Raptors 7-footer Jakob Poeltl was in the midst of a 25-game absence due to a lower back strain.
Poeltl returned a game before the All-Star break and has worked his way back into form. His best game was Sunday against Detroit when he had 21 points, a season-high 18 rebounds and five assists.
