Among the many Rubik's Cube-type puzzles for first-year Nuggets coach Michael Malone to solve is this one: How does he get Danilo Gallinari's production consistently evened out over both halves of games?
Of course, Gallinari, the Nuggets' leading scorer, is an active participant in fixing the issue, which is about as peculiar as they come.
In a nutshell, this is it: During the Nuggets' 85-74 loss to Orlando on Tuesday, Gallinari got off to a hot start, scoring 11 points in the first quarter. But he scored only two points the remainder of the game.