Stop me if you’ve heard this before. The Denver Nuggets have won at least seven of their first nine games to open a season, but it’s been their defense that has guided the team to victory throughout the opening weeks.
Yes, for the second-straight season, the Nuggets are winning as a result of their defense, not their potentially high-powered offense. In Denver’s 8-1 start to the 2018-19 season, the team’s third-ranked defense fueled the success. Now, the Nuggets still had an above-average offense during those nine games (12th in offensive rating, to be exact), which is a significant improvement on the team’s offense through the first nine games of the 2019-20 campaign.