The Nuggets should’ve been con­tent Wednes­day night hav­ing locked up the No. 3 seed and a first-round date with the Utah Jazz.

Instead, they were left search­ing for more answers after the Clip­pers gashed anoth­er hole in their porous defense. Los Ange­les’ 40-point third quar­ter wouldn’t have raised alarms in a vac­u­um, but it’s been com­mon­place for the Nuggets inside the bubble.

Six times over their first sev­en seed­ing games the Nuggets con­ced­ed quar­ters of at least 35 points. Against the Spurs, whom the Nuggets slipped past in a 132–126 shootout, San Anto­nio had sep­a­rate 37-point quarters.

“We just can’t stop any­body,” Nuggets coach Michael Mal­one con­ced­ed after the loss to the Clip­pers. “We can­not have a mind­set going for­ward that we’re going to outscore teams in the play­offs. That is a los­ing formula.”

Added vet­er­an Paul Mill­sap, the anchor of their front­court defense, on Fri­day: “It’s about inten­si­ty, it’s about atten­tion to detail. I think that’s the biggest thing about the play­offs. It’s some­thing that we haven’t been real­ly good at these past few weeks since com­ing in the bubble.”

Mill­sap spoke after their lat­est loss, a dispir­it­ing per­for­mance that saw the Rap­tors score 27 points off Denver’s 15 turnovers. Oppo­nents are aver­ag­ing 22.5 points off Denver’s turnovers, which is the worst rate of all 22 teams in Orlando.

But the biggest con­tribut­ing fac­tor to what’s been the worst defense in the bub­ble has been Denver’s inabil­i­ty to pro­tect the 3‑point line. Teams have drained over 44% of their 3‑point attempts against the Nuggets, also the worst rate in the bubble.

Indi­vid­u­al­ly, only three play­ers in the entire NBA shot bet­ter from beyond the arc than what the Nuggets have allowed in Orlando.

“We got­ta talk more out there,” Nuggets guard Jamal Mur­ray said. “There’s no crowd, there’s no fans, so we got­ta be more vocal to each oth­er and just talk things out. I feel like we just have a qui­et group and we’re nat­ur­al like that. If we keep hav­ing laps­es on defense like that then something’s got­ta give. I just think we got­ta talk more and that’ll sort out a lot of issues.”

After the loss to the Clip­pers, their sec­ond in a row and fourth inside the bub­ble, Mal­one said his team was lack­ing the “sus­tained effort” he need­ed to see at this point. That shouldn’t be a per­son­nel issue, although the absences of Gary Har­ris (hip) and Will Bar­ton (knee) have hurt their con­ti­nu­ity. If the prob­lem is mak­ing defen­sive calls, replace­ment starters Tor­rey Craig and Michael Porter Jr. will have to address those issues on the fly as the play­offs begin.

“Com­mu­ni­ca­tion, like I said, is at the fore­front of it,” Mur­ray said.

Porter’s defense, in par­tic­u­lar, has always drawn scruti­ny, most­ly because it was the key to him see­ing sig­nif­i­cant min­utes on the court. But the injuries grant­ed him an oppor­tu­ni­ty to get on the court, and he seized it. The blow-bys or the mis­steps in pick-and-roll will get ironed out with more play­ing time. As Mal­one has said repeat­ed­ly, he can’t teach Porter’s length. What Porter has earned over the seed­ing games is more lee­way and poten­tial­ly a start­ing small for­ward spot.

Know­ing that Porter is going to be a sig­nif­i­cant piece of their team mov­ing for­ward, Mur­ray has been vocal with the surg­ing rook­ie. And if that means liv­ing with his defen­sive mis­takes but ben­e­fit­ing from his offen­sive gifts, so be it.

“Once Mike learns how to give it up and get it back, and find some­body, we’re gonna be real­ly dan­ger­ous,” Mur­ray said. “I don’t know how many games Mike has played with us in the start­ing group, but it’s not a lot. He’s already fig­ur­ing it out, and we’re just going to keep talk­ing to him and fight through those mistakes.

“We have noth­ing to wor­ry about (with) Mike,” he con­tin­ued. “We know he’s going to be able to score, we know he’s gonna get buck­ets, and he’s going to be huge for us in the play­offs. Just right now, defen­sive­ly is our con­cern with not just him, but every­body, and if we don’t fix that, we’re going to have a lot of problems.”