The Nuggets crashed to a 35-point loss to the Canterbury Rams at the Edgar Centre on Saturday night.
The 93-58 defeat was their fourth consecutive loss.
They had a horrid night at the offensive end.
Of the starting five, only captain Ethan Rusbatch could walk away with any Brownie points.
He top-scored for the home team with 17 points and Tyson Thata-Paese collected 12 from the bench.
To wrap some context around how poor Jeff Sparrow’s team was, it was the Nuggets’ fourth-equal lowest score and 11th-heaviest loss since they entered the league in 1990.
The coach was in no mood to talk about it. Sparrow gave some very brief answers to an equally brief post-match interview.
The Nuggets are under enormous pressure. They are watching their season slip away one clunky shot at a time. And they are at real risk of squandering a 4-0 run at the start of the campaign by missing out on the playoffs.
There were concerning signs early.
Former Nuggets centre Jack Andrew was untroubled getting inside to post to open the scoring, Taylor Britt dispossessed Buay Tuach moments later, and Tamenang Choh (24 points) popped in a triple to capitalise.
It was not going well for the home side.
The crowd of 1421 were hushed as the Nuggets missed shot after shot.
Craig Moller tossed up an airball so astray it was lucky to connect with the air.
Meanwhile, Andrew (nine points, 10 rebounds) helped himself to a couple of dunks.
Zach McKenzie hit a late triple — Moller had made a nice drive and dish — but the Nuggets went into the break trailing 21-13 and fell further behind courtesy of some magic from Britt.
He got to the hoop for two and added an extra for the foul.
Then he knocked down a three-pointer to put some more distance between the South Island rivals.
Tuach spent most of the second quarter on the bench as Sparrow searched for answers.
When he did get back on the court, he threw a rock at the basket and it landed in a garden in St Kilda somewhere, and the Rams led 40-27 at halftime.
Andrew tested the structural integrity of the rim again, Choh landed a lovely fade-away jumper and slapped in a putback moments later, and Jake Holmes rounded up the lead to 20 with a couple of successful free throws.
The Nuggets’ highlights clip was too short for a TikTok reel at that point, and things did not get any better.
Walter Brown finished the quarter in style for the visitors. He tossed the ball in from his own quarter of the court.
The Nuggets gave up and ran their bench for most of the final period.
Who knows what happened? It is hard to watch with your head buried in your hands.
The Nuggets won the Rapid League game 43-23.
In the other game on Saturday night, the Hawke’s Bay Hawks edged the Franklin Bulls 101-95 in overtime.
NBL
The scores
Canterbury Rams 93
Tamenang Choh 24, Rene Rougeau 13
Otago Nuggets 58
Ethan Rusbatch 17, Tyson Thata-Paese 12
Quarter scores: Rams 21-13, 40-27, 71-40.
