Vigilance became more vulnerable to vanish once the losing streak did. At least, that’s what worried Nuggets coach Michael Malone.
The most daunting aspect of facing the reeling Detroit Pistons, he determined before tip-off Sunday night, was “human nature.”
“You look at their record,” Malone said, “and they’ve won three games.”
But the level of national attention on that win-loss total has dissipated since Dec. 30, when the Pistons finally snapped a record-tying 28-game losing streak. The motivational healthy fear of being the team to end the streak, to lose the un-losable, is no longer looming over Detroit’s opponents.