We’re almost a quarter done. By Saturday night, your 2016-2017 Denver Nuggets will have wrapped up the first quarter of this 82 game season, watching another tough quarter sink them in a loss to the struggling Miami Heat last night. Denver came into the fourth with a five point lead last night, but lost an unproductive frame by 13 points, and the game by eight.
Such tumult is not unknown to these young Nuggets, most of whom have not achieved their first quarter century, but I’m beginning to wonder if Michael Malone keeps his hair so close-cropped as to avoid pulling it all out at some truly hair-raising quarters over the first 18 games. Here’s a few bits of info around those 72 quarters.
· 12: Double-digit deficits, 16.7% of the total
· 10: Double-digit lifts, 13.9% of the total
· 2: Number of games in which the Nuggets lost two quarters by double digits
· 1: loss from those two games, as they still beat Timberwolves on November 3rd
· 19: The Nuggets largest margin in winning a quarter, achieved three times, including that crazy Minny game
· 21: Largest margin of defeat in a quarter, the third quarter of a seven-point loss to the Trail Blazers
· 0: The number of games in which the Nuggets have lost all four quarters
· 1: The number of games in which the Nuggets have won all four quarters
· -52: The sum total of 18 first quarters this season
· +86: The sum total of 18 second quarters this season
· -21: The, uh… sum total of 18 third quarters this season
· -43: I think you get where this is going
· 3: The count of those last four numbers that is negative, sadly, with the first and fourth quarter sums particularly troubling
Though the early negatives are slightly outweighing the positives in the first quarterly report, Nuggets Nation, there’s still gold in some of those data points. Where is this team headed in the second quarter of the season? Third? Fourth?
