Paraphrasing Freddie Mercury, a scribe recently posed this burning question, Bohemian Rhapsody style, to Denver Nuggets forward Torrey Craig:

Was the lockdown defense during the first ten weeks of this season the life? Or was it just dream?

“I mean, it’s a tough league,” answered Craig, whose Nuggets (31-15) host Phoenix (11-38) at seven on Friday night at the Pepsi Center to begin a weekend back-to-back which carries a visit by Philadelphia (32-17) on Saturday. “Teams are extremely excellent. Teams will score the ball.

“It’s difficult to have teams to not score and keep them under 100. We & rsquo; re attempting to get back to our own ways, and we sort of lost sight of that, although that was a major factor for us early on. I thought we all did a fantastic job against (the Bulls), until late in the third quarter, instead of carrying them under 100. But every night is a different challenge. We have to develop with the same mindset. ”

Coach Mike Malone contested that mindset — to say the very least — following a 114-108 reduction at Utah late Wednesday night, a competition that saw the host Jazz join on 13 3-pointers during the first two phases, the many treys in franchise history over the course of a half.

“I think we needed to play two matches in 11 times or something, or even eight games in 12 (this month),” stated Craig, who collected seven points and eight rebounds in 38 minutes from Utah. “So after a while, it’s effort, it’s being tired physically. (You) only have to stay locked in and push through it. ”

Craig and his teammates are convinced the Nuggets’ defensive dominance on October, November and early December wasn’t a illusion. And yet while regression is unavoidable throughout the course of 82 games, the magnitude of the one has raised as many doubts as eyebrow: Over the first 12 games of January, Denver is allowing opponents to score 1.16 points per possession, up more than a tenth of a point per trip from a pace of 1.04 points the Nuggets had allowed foes throughout the season’s opening 12 tilts.

So what does that mean in the picture? NBA squads are averaging 99.5 possessions per 48 minutes this year, according to Basketball-Reference. com. Throw in the math, along with the Nuggets this season will be coughing on average, nearly 12 points more per game over their last dozen looks (115.4 points per 99.5 possessions) than what they surrendered on the first 12 contests of this year (103.4 points per 99.5 possessions).

“There’s no way in hell I should need to call timeouts in the first quarter from Cleveland and Chicago and demand defense from our men,” Malone mentioned earlier this past week. “And whether it’s us looking down (toward) our competition, our mindset should happen to be defensive dominance. And it had been gruesome, (it turned out ) ‘Let’s outscore these men. ’ We had stretches in each of these games which allowed us to be up by 30 and 40 . (But) the protection isn’t where it needs to be. Particularly with the quality of games that we’ve left on our program. ”

Of those Nuggets&rsquo 11 games ahead of the All-Star break, just five are at home, although three are against teams among the league’s top 10 squads in offensive performance. (Houston after, Philadelphia twice) Denver has climbed to No. 3 in the NBA in offensive performance (1.105 points per possession) since the beginning of the New Year, while dipping to No. 13 in the league in defensive efficiency (1.057 points allowed per competitor possession) over that same stretch.

Blame Golden State and that Looney Tunes first quarter. Blame Utah’s barrage another night. And yet for those hand-wringing, all those metrics and most of those daggers, the Nuggets still go into the weekend ranked fourth in the NBA in opponent 3-point field goal percent (34.1).

“Right now, my struggle, what I harp on all the time, is (that in) October-November-early December, we were also a top-5 protector,” Malone said. “Now, within the last month, we now ’re practically a bottom-5 defense, along with & hellip is alarming;

“We have to, in ways, of who rsquo we &; re playing, to return to being a defensive group, first and 33, regardless. Our offense has removed, but as that’s removed, our shield is evaporating. And we have to discover a happy medium. ”

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