Associated PressBeginning with a loss at Milwaukee, the Denver Nuggets have gone winless since the A...

1. Bucks vs. Nuggets Preview
Associated Press
Beginning with a loss at Milwaukee, the Denver Nuggets have gone winless since the All-Star break.
Their current struggles at home began well before.
The Nuggets can avoid matching the club record of 11 consecutive homes defeats by extending the
Bucks' season-high road skid to five games Tuesday night.
Denver (20-39) entered the break off a 106-96 win over the Los Angeles Lakers but after trading
second-leading scorer Arron Afflalo to Portland, had its eight-game winning streak over Milwaukee
end with an 89-81 loss on Feb. 20.
Including that defeat, the Nuggets have averaged 87.8 points and shot 36.1 percent while dropping
six in a row - one off their season high. This is their fourth skid of at least six games.
Losers in 19 of 21, the Nuggets' 99-92 loss to New Orleans on Sunday left them within a game of the
team-record 11-game home losing streak set in 1997-98. Though Denver held an opponent to fewer
than 100 points for the first time in 11 home games, it still hasn't won there since Jan. 14.
While Milwaukee (32-27) has dropped four straight at Denver, it faces a Nuggets club that's mired in
their worst season since going 17-65 in 2002-03.
''You've just got to find a way. You've got to play your heart out,'' center Kenneth Faried said.
In order for the Nuggets to end their losing ways, coach Brian Shaw believes leading scorer Ty
Lawson (16.3 points per game) and top rebounder Faried (11.2 points, 8.5 rebounds per game) must
improve both competitively and mentally after their struggles continued with a combined eight
points Sunday.
Though Lawson had 11 assists, he's averaged 8.0 points and shot 38.7 percent in the last four games
- all at home. The Nuggets have lost their last seven games when Lawson fails to reach his scoring
average.
The 6-foot-8 Faried is averaging 5.2 points while going 12 of 40 from the floor and 6.0 boards in his
last six contests.
"I've got to find a way to get Ty going. ... Get Kenneth going," Shaw said.
"Those two are our best players and we need to get them to play better. Everybody needs them, their
energy, their aggressiveness. We've got to continue to figure out how to get more interest and more
energy from those two guys in particular."
While Lawson was a healthy scratch for missing a practice, Faried had eight points on 4-of-11
shooting plus five rebounds and three turnovers at Milwaukee last month. Rookie Jusuf Nurkic

2. scored 11 and recorded a season-high 15 boards with three blocks but will miss a third straight
game with a foot injury.
A day after being traded to Milwaukee, Michael Carter-Williams wasn't available for the first
meeting but enters the rematch hoping to build on a solid effort in Saturday's 82-75 loss at Utah that
dropped the Bucks to 0-2 on a four-game trip against Western Conference teams. They're 3-8 on the
road versus West teams.
After totaling 15 points in his first two games with the Bucks, Carter-Williams had 16 on 6-of-10
shooting to go with five rebounds and four steals.
Milwaukee, however, has averaged 79.7 points while shooting 37.2 percent over the last three of its
four-game road slide.
''Our defense has always kept us in games throughout,'' said Bucks coach Jason Kidd, whose team is
tied for second in the league allowing an average of 96.4 points. ''Sometimes we feel sorry for
ourselves offensively when the ball isn't going in.
"We've kind of forgotten that that is what we built this on - doing the little things.''
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