With a 20-38 record this season, the Nuggets are toiling in the basement of a ruthless Western Conference.
It's apparently gotten so bad in Denver that the team is counting down to the end of the regular season... Literally.
MORE: Amar'e: 'No regrets' about time with Knicks | Bulls 'cautiously optimistic' about Rose | Morris wants more from Suns fans
From the Denver Post's Christopher Dempsey:
A fourth-quarter huddle late in the Nuggets' 104-82 loss to the Utah Jazz on Friday broke with this phrase: "1-2-3 ... six weeks!"
As in six weeks to go until the end of the season. That's 24 games, 46 days and 1,152 minutes away.
Dempsey also points out that the Nuggets' disheartened huddle is reminiscent of Nick Van Exel's "1-2-3 ... Cancun!" exclamation when his Lakers were on their way to being swept by the the Jazz in the 1998 Western Conference finals.
So this season's Nuggets aren't the first ones with the idea, but it's yet another illustration of poor morale in Denver.
Things haven't been going well for a while, as head coach Brian Shaw has struggled mightily to keep his locker room together.
"I'm frustrated in myself because I feel that I need to figure out a way to do a better job at trying to get that out of us, get that hustle and those kinds of plays and to play with more of a sense of urgency, play with more tenacity," said Shaw of the team's struggles, per Dempsey.
As for the coach's assessment of his players?
"Our guys are frustrated, too," he said, according to Dempsey. "And so the weight of this all starts to come down. Some guys in those situations fight harder. Some guys give in."
No matter how rough the remainder of the road is for the Nuggets this season, it'll all be over in six weeks.