Nuggets' Shaw: 'I get thrown under the bus when we come out with performances like that'

The Denver Nuggets had a rough night at the office on Thursday, getting bulldozed by the Memphis Grizzlies while scoring a season-low 69 points, shooting 33.3 percent from the floor and 7.7 percent from 3-point range. 

After putting together a five-game winning streak to start the new year, that included a 29-point win over these same Grizzlies, the Nuggets have now lost eight of 10. Their inconsistency and perceived lack of effort has their coach, Brian Shaw, feeling both exasperated and a little uneasy about his job security.

Here's what he had to say after the game, according to Chris Dempsey of the Denver Post:

I don't feel like we came and competed from the very beginning of the game.

I wish in these kinds of situations, I'd have more respect if guys just told me they didn't feel like playing (tonight) from the start.

I'm just sick and tired of one night getting a certain kind of effort, (and) the next night we don't show up, we don't compete.

You come out and you compete, and then if you don't have it, then you don't have it and you can live with it.

I feel like I get thrown under the bus when we come out with performances like that.

So any questions that you have in terms of our effort, where it was, why we played the way we played tonight ... those are good questions to ask them because I'd like to know the answer to that, too.

At least one Nugget agreed with his coach, but he wasn't about to let the axe fall on the players alone. 

"We definitely could have played harder," said point guard Jameer Nelson, "but nobody is exempt from top to bottom - guys who played; coaches who coached."

Shaw wasn't the first coach to feel his seat getting warmer Thursday night, although, unlike the Magic with Jacque Vaughn, the Nuggets' front office hasn't publicly hinted at the possibility of making a change on the bench. 

But considering he inherited a 57-win team (albeit with some personnel changes) and is now on his way to a second consecutive losing season, with a squad that lacks any sort of identity, Shaw has good reason to be looking over his shoulder.