What's up with the Denver Nuggets, and should we be concerned?

After gaining a dominant lead over the WesternConference over the past couple of months, the Denver Nuggets havecome back down to earth.

They've lost five of their last seven games,including a four-game skid featuring the Chicago Bulls at home, an8-point loss to the San Antonio Spurs on the road, a tightlycontested home loss to the Brooklyn Nets and a road loss to theToronto Raptors, who dropped 49 first-quarter points on theNuggets' head.

That four-game losing streak was their longest of theseason, and only the second time they've lost three straight.

The big problem has been their defense. The Nuggetslogged a defensive rating of 125.2 during the losing streak, withthat dropping to 120.5 when accounting for the entire seven-gamerun. Either mark would easily be the worst in the league ifextrapolated across the entire season.

The defense has almost always been the reason they'velost games this year; their defensive rating is nearly 13 pointsworse in losses (122.4) than wins (109.5), representing thesixth-largest gap in the NBA.

(Brief aside: Cleveland — at 16.6 points worse inlosses — is kinda lapping the field in that stat. When the defensegets hit, it gets hit.Worth keeping an eye on, atleast.)

WHAT'S UP WITH THE DEFENSE?

Before digging in, let's set the appropriate framingfor the struggles of the Denver Nuggets: they may be recent, butthey're not new.

Naturally, we have to start with Nikola Jokic here. Ihate most of the conversations around his defense because I feel itdevolves into “HE SUCKS!” a little too quickly. But Idon’t think his defense can be at the level it was in the Bullsgame, and it especially can’t be at the level it was in the Spursgame.

Jokic doesn't offer much scheme versatility; at thevery least, he isn'teffectiveat multiplecoverages. He's at his best — and, in turn, the Nuggets are attheirbest — when he's operating at the level of thescreen or higher.