Christian Braun Reveals How Nuggets Can Turn Things Around

The Denver Nuggets fell to the shorthanded Golden State Warriors over the weekend in a humbling 117-128 road loss, now dropping the Nuggets to a 4-6 record in their last 10 games, and not quite showing out to be the same caliber team as they were early in the season, or even throughout the month of January.

While some of the Nuggets' health has turned around in the right direction, the unit's ability to gel together and form a cohesive and well-balanced unit on both sides of the ball just hasn’t come to fruition. And now that the clock is winding down on the regular season, the timeframe for Denver to tweak those errors is quickly becoming slim.

So what do the Nuggets need to do in order to turn the operation around in the coming weeks? In the mind of Christian Braun, part of that comes down to just having better ball control and improved execution in the clutch.

“I think we've just got to take care of the ball. I think a lot of it this year has just been not holding our spots, not being tough enough down the stretch, and that's on all of us," Braun said postgame. "I've talked about how I think we had seen where the game was tied, and then we turned the ball over three times, and that's what it felt like, and they scored every time, so it's hard to win games when you do that."

"It has nothing to do with our process down the stretch, it has nothing to do with anything besides we need to hold our spots, we've got to be tougher and play better.”

Christian Braun Says Nuggets Need to Be Tougher

The Nuggets' process has also continued to be a bit more difficult to execute within while the team is still down a couple of key players in Aaron Gordon and Peyton Watson; two guys that play a huge impact on both ends of the floor, and leave Denver forced to put together the leftover pieces without them.

Of course, the Warriors were also down multiple stars on their side of things, highlighted by absences to Stephen Curry and Draymond Green. But even while depleted, the Warriors adjusted, found the holes in Denver's defense to attack, capitalized on their lapses and lack of energy, and came out with the upset victory.

Feb 22, 2026; San Francisco, California, USA; Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic (15) is defended by Golden State Warriors guard Moses Moody (4) and guard De'Anthony Melton (8) in the fourth quarter at Chase Center. Mandatory Credit: David Gonzales-Imagn Images | David Gonzales-Imagn Images

For Braun, the Nuggets need to replicate just that. Even when key players are out of the lineup, there's still no excuse for the end result; they just have to play better than they did this weekend.

“I think, like you said, we've had guys in and out, but it's not an excuse. You've got to figure it out," Braun continued postgame.

"It's a tight race right now, so we've got to find a way to win games, put games together. We've had guys step up and play really well, we've got stretches and really good games, but we have more than enough in this locker room, we've seen that. We have more than enough right now, we have more than enough when guys went out. We've had guys step up and we've got to play better. Like I said, bad job down the stretch today. It wasn't a great road trip for us. We've got to be tougher, we've got to play better, and I think we will.”

It's been a bumpy past couple of weeks for the Nuggets, but as Braun makes clear, he's still confident their play can turn around down the stretch to help get this group back to the dominant level they're accustomed to being at.