Reeling Nuggets cling to hope they can straighten themselves out this week with the playoffs looming

DENVER (AP) — The Denver Nuggets haven't been the same since blowing a chance to beat their nemesis in double-overtime on April 2.

They've dropped three straight since a 140-139 heartbreaker that the Minnesota Timberwolves stole from them after Russell Westbrook missed an uncontested layup to seal it, then fouled Nickeil Alexander-Walker on a 3-pointer with a tenth of a second left and Denver clinging to a one-point lead.

Alexander-Walker sank two free throws to run Minnesota's winning streak over Denver to six games and ruin Nikola Jokic's career-best 61-point performance that night.

The Nuggets lost to San Antonio the next night with all five starters sitting out, then dropped a game at Golden State despite a 44-point first quarter. On Sunday night, they blew a 13-point first-half lead and committed three crucial turnovers down the stretch in their 125-120 loss to the short-handed Indiana Pacers that saddled the Nuggets with their first four-game skid of the season.

“I don't know if I would say there's been a hangover,” coach Michael Malone said. “We were up tonight. We got up by 13. We weren't able to hold on. We were up in Golden State, weren't able to hold on. So, I don't know if it's a hangover necessarily, but whatever it is we've got to find a way to get this out of our system.”

They'll likely have to do it without point guard Jamal Murray, who missed his fifth consecutive game with a pulled right hamstring Sunday night.

Asked before tip-off Sunday if he expects Murray to be back in action by the playoffs, Malone said, “hopefully he’s able to be back by then.”

But where will the Nuggets be?

Anywhere from Ball Arena to a play-in game.

Denver is still in fourth place in the Western Conference playoff race but just a-half game out of eighth place with three games remaining.

“We've lost four in a row, in a bad moment, so I think we're a little bit down,” Jokic said. “But a win can always cheer us up or make us feel better about ourselves.”

Christian Braun, who scored a career-best 30 points against the Pacers but got tangled with Jokic on a crucial turnover with 15 seconds left and the Nuggets down two, said he trusts the Nuggets can still straighten things out in time to make a run in the postseason.

“We get to the playoffs I know this team can compete with anybody," Braun said. "We've got to go in there with momentum. We've got to go in there playing the right way. We've got to find a way to find some toughness.

“We've got to get back to who we are and we've got to find ourselves in these last three games. Like I said, it's not over or anything like that. But we do got to get some momentum.”

The Nuggets visit Sacramento on Wednesday night, then host the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday night before wrapping things up Sunday at Houston.

Before the game, Malone said the reason he's stuck with Westbrook despite his blunders of late is that he looks at his whole body of work this season, not the last week's foibles.

“We wouldn’t be where we are right now, in fourth place with four games to go, if it wasn’t for Russell this year,” Malone said.

After the game, the Nuggets said Westbrook had been admonished by the league for declining post-game interviews and that he was available in the locker room.

But Westbrook's comments recalled Marshawn Lynch's “I'm just here so I won't get fined,” routine.

Q: Is there a sense of urgency in this locker room to avoid the play-in?

“I don't know, man, you know, unsure.”

Q: Malone mentioned your value as a veteran. What can you draw from to help this team?

“I don't know. I don't have the answer for you, man. I wish I did. But unfortunately, I don't.”

Q: What's frustrating you most right now?

“Um, probably just losing.”

Q: Where's the confidence this group can figure something out these next three games?

“I hope it's high. I can't speak for everybody in the locker room. But my head stays high, get ready for Wednesday.”

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba

Indiana Pacers guard T.J. McConnell, right, drives past Denver Nuggets guard Christian Braun, left, in the second half of an NBA basketball game Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic reacts after missing last-second, 3-point basket- attempt in the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Indiana Pacers, Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Denver Nuggets guard Russell Westbrook reacts after hitting a 3-point basket against the Indiana Pacers in the second half of an NBA basketball game Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

TOKYO (AP) — Japan marked the 15th anniversary of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster on its northeastern coast Wednesday as the government pushes for atomic energy use.

The magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, ravaged parts of the region, caused more than 22,000 deaths and forced nearly half a million people to flee their homes, most of them due to tsunami damage.

In Fukushima, some 160,000 people fled their homes due to radiation spewed from the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. About 26,000 of them haven't returned because they had resettled elsewhere, their hometowns remain off-limits or they have lingering concerns about radiation.

The country observed a moment of silence at 2:46 p.m., the moment the quake occurred 15 years earlier.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, at a ceremony in Fukushima, pledged to do the utmost to accelerate the region's recovery within the next five years and keep telling “the valuable lessons we learned from the huge sacrifice of the disaster.”

Takaichi has pushed to accelerate reactor restarts and sought to bolster nuclear power as a stable energy source, in line with the major reversal of policy in 2022 that ended a decade-long nuclear phase-out plan.

Some residents in the tsunami-ravaged areas walked down to the coast early morning to pray for their loved ones and others whose remains are still missing.

More than 1 million homes, offices and schools were damaged or destroyed in the quake and tsunami in Iwate, Miyagi, Fukushima and other coastal areas. Key infrastructure has been rebuilt, but people have moved away and the recovery of communities and local economies has been slow.

The Fukushima Daiichi plant lost its power and cooling functions, causing meltdowns in three of its six reactors. The three reactors contain at least 880 tons of melted fuel debris, but details of the state inside them are little known due to the still-dangerous radiation levels.

Fuller-scale removal of melted fuel debris has been delayed until 2037 or later.

There's also a massive amount of slightly radioactive soil, enough to fill 11 baseball stadiums, from the decontamination efforts across the area.

The government has pledged to move the soil and has sought to use some for road construction and other public works projects but has faced public resistance.

Prayers join their hands in Sendai, Miyagi prefecgture, northern Japan Wednesday, March 11, 2026, as the country marked the 15th anniversary of the massive earquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster. (Natsumi Yasumoto/Kyodo News via AP)

Bystanders pray at 2:46 p.m., Wednesday, March 11, 2026 in Tokyo, as Japan marked the 15th anniversary of the 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster that devastated the northeastern coast. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Peopel mourn in front of former Okawa Elementary School where lots of children and teachers from the school lost their lives by the massive tsunami in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, northern Japan Wednesday, March 11, 2026, as the country marked the 15th anniversary of the massive earquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster. (Mizuki Sakai/Kyodo News via AP)

Bystanders pray at 2:46 p.m., the moment the earthquake struck, Wednesday, March 11, 2026 in Tokyo, as Japan marked the 15th anniversary of the 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster that devastated the northeastern coast. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

People observe a moment of silence at 2:46 p.m., the moment the earthquake struck with a backdrop of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Namie, Fukushima prefecture, northern Japan as the country marked the 15th anniversary of the massive earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster. (Kyodo News via AP)