My apologies for falling off the radar there for awhile. I missed a few home games over the holidays but was back in section 374, seats 16 and 17 last night for the beginning of the latest home stand. Shall we?

1. A pretty solid crowd turned out to watch the Nuggets take on the Cavs. Was it because it was Western Night or are there fans out there who still think Lebron plays in Cleveland? You never know.
2. For you Parks and Recreation fans out there, Rocky walked a tiny horse around the court to help kick off the National Western Stock Show. No one was as starstruck as they would've been had Li'l Sebastian shown up, but we all thought the little guy was pretty cute.
3. That's more than I can say for the action on the court. In fact, it was the direct opposite. I've seen the Nuggets play some ugly games (you know, NugLife and all), but this one might take the cake for the season. Getting outhustled, outshot and generally outplayed by the lowly Cavs? At home? That's just brutal. To put it in perspective, Jamal Murry and Gary Harris were a combined 4-16 shooting at one point in the first half.
4. I've supported Michael Malone's plan for bringing along Michael Porter Jr. After all, the man has spent years rebuilding the basketball culture in Denver and has constructed a tightly-knit locker room, with the core concepts being a commitment to team and defense. He doesn't reward players with more minutes or an expanded role until they earn it. I respect that. But on a night when most of the starters were struggling from the field and seemed like they were just going through the motions, maybe that's a good time to let the kid play through his mistakes? Malone apparently had other ideas and after Porter Jr. was cooked a couple of times on defense, he promptly banished the kid to the bench for the remainder of the game.
5. For the record, I think we'll continue to see more of these inconsistent performances until there is more clarity about the rotation and everyone's role on the team. It's hard to get in sync with one another when different guys are coming off the bench every night. Maybe a trade is necessary to clear things up. Wouldn't hurt if the Nuggets found a sharpshooter in return to help alleviate some of their offensive woes. But I'm getting off track here.
6. There was a young Cavs fan sitting near me, cheering loudly for his team and booing whenever the Nuggets were at the free throw line. Was I annoyed by him? Sure, but give the kid at least some credit for not jumping off the bandwagon when Lebron left.
7. If you enjoy country music, you probably would've liked the halftime show. Their name escapes me but a country band played to continue the Western Night theme. People seemed to enjoy it.
8. Not much enjoyment was to be found anywhere else. Jokic was the only Nugget that didn't have an off night. When he was asserting himself and looking for his shot, the game got close and we had a chance to win.
9. Then we stopped going through Jokic, went back to our struggling guards to lead the way and the game promptly slipped away. It was a confusing, frustrating evening at The Can.
10. When it was obvious that we were going to lose, fans started heading for the exits in droves. One guy sitting behind me said, "Well that sucked. Maybe the stock show will be better." It certainly can't be much worse, friend.