For all the good that the first-year head coach David Adelman has done for the Nuggets, he has not been able to get the Nuggets to play good defense. In the last two games, both vs. the top-ranked teams from each conference, the OKC Thunder and the Detroit Pistons, the Nuggets gave up open shot after open shot. They didn't play physical, have given up easy buckets in the paint, and have just generally been poor on defense.
Against the Thunder, the Nuggets were extremely slow in rotating, and OKC made them pay for it. Specifically, Cason Wallace did.