Denver Nuggets: With Spring Comes Road Woes

With the rising temperatures, birds chirping, snow melting and longer days…spring is here! And spring has brought another familiar sight – the Denver Nuggets struggling to play well on the road.

Since the beginning of March, the Nuggets are only 1-3 in games away from Pepsi Center. In those games they are averaging 20 points less, shooting 16 percent worse from three-point range, and shooting six percent worse from the field compared to games at home.

Ah, the Nuggets old nemesis has finally returned! I knew that ugly Oh No We’re Playing On The Road team Denver tried to stuff under the bed would come out eventually.

The percentages aren’t the only ugly stats the Nuggets record when playing away from Pepsi Center. The team makes five more three-pointers and six more two-pointers per game at home compared to road games. Not to mention they record four more steals and five more assists per game at home.

Spring has brought yesteryear’s Nuggets along with it. The springtime Nuggets are a team that can run teams out of the gym using the fast break at home (averaging 125.7 points a game in March), but can’t maintain that play outside of Colorado (averaging 105.3 points).

Sounds familiar doesn’t it?

The strange thing about the “usual”’ Nuggets showing up is that the team was consistent across state lines before the All-Star break. Brian Shaw’s slow-down offense brought a team that looked about the same on the road, and it was good to see some consistency after watching road struggles my whole life.

The consistency was clear before the All-Star break. At home the team averaged 103.2 points, 47.6 rebounds, and 23.3 assists a game. The Nuggets shot 36.9 percent from three and 44.2 percent from the field. They had 14 wins in 25 games.

On the road before the break that same line reads: 102.8 points, 43.1 rebounds, and 20.8 assists on 35.3 percent three-point shooting and 45.3 percent shooting (AN IMPROVEMENT) from the floor. The Nuggets won 10 of 26 road games in that stretch.

They were a better team at home, but the numbers show they were far from being 20 points better at home.

To me, it’s a little strange that a team so consistent would all of the sudden find its “home court advantage” more than half way through the season.

However, it’s not strange when thinking about the games played in March. The games are faster, the legendary fast break is back, and scoring is up both at home and on the road.

That fast break takes that marginally better Nuggets home team and gives it a little extra juice. It exploits the “Mile High Advantage” and creates distance between the road and home play. It proves all that altitude talk has something to it.

The springtime Nuggets (from March 1) average 107.57 possessions a game at home, and 100.77 possessions per game on the road.  Before the All-star break? They averaged 100.64 at home and 98.59 on the road.

Don’t think Brian Shaw wants to run? The Nuggets now play a quicker game on the road than they played at home before the All-Star Game. Shaw let the horses out of the gate and the team is benefiting by scoring in bunches.

The increased pace has led to better basketball overall (especially at home). It’s also brought out the best in Ty Lawson and Kenneth Faried. The duo has taken the increased pace and used it to their advantage. I’ve already raved about Lawson since he came back from injury, but Faried is putting up 21 points and 10 rebounds on 64.5 percent shooting in March.

Spring cleaning has resulted in Faried playing the best basketball in his young career.

Assuming Shaw keeps the team pushing the ball as much as possible through spring, we’ll end this season watching a similar Nuggets scene despite Faried’s great play – The Nuggets are once again a team that can run almost anyone out of the gym at home, but can’t use the fast break for road success.

Flowers, warmth, rivers running, spring training, and the Nuggets faltering on the road. Yup, it feels like spring again.