A few wins would go a long way to make the Nuggets’ wait to be a whole lot more bearable, but they won’t come easily.

After a 1-2 start following the All-Star break, Denver begins a challenging week against the Celtics, which entered Tuesday’s game against the Lakers second in the Eastern Conference. Then come games against the team with the association’s best record, Oklahoma City, and the Timberwolves, who started Tuesday’s slate just a game behind Denver in sixth place.

“This week is a big week for us to respond,” Christian Braun said after Tuesday’s practice. “We’ve got some good teams these next few games. We understand the challenge. We just need to meet the challenge.”

The Nuggets aren’t expected to have Aaron Gordon or Peyton Watson back for three difficult games. Denver coach David Adelman hoped to be back at full strength with 20 games to go, which is still a handful of games away.

“This is our period that we have to fight through. (When) we get Aaron and Peyton back and figure out who the hell we are from all the way back in October, who we thought we were going to be, the hope is we get enough games to find a rhythm to who we can be,” Adelman said.

“I think what we can be is a major, major problem, but we just got to get to that point.”

In the meantime, the Nuggets have an idea how to get out of their current rut.

“Right now, the main thing is just being a more physical defensive team, just having more initiative on that end, dictating more things,” guard Julian Strawther said.

“I feel like right now we’re super reactionary on defense, and the reactionary team usually loses.”

It’s been the same story for as long as Braun has been in Denver.

“When we guard teams and we take care of the ball, we tend to win a lot of games,” Denver’s starting shooting guard said. “We know we’re going to score no matter who is out there. Whatever the lineup is, we always score a lot of points. We just got to pay attention to detail, especially at the end of games.”

The three games ahead will test the Nuggets in a variety of ways. Boston takes the third-most 3-pointers of any team and grabs the sixth-most offensive rebounds. That combination has the Celtics second in offensive rating behind the Nuggets. Oklahoma City’s league-best defensive rating and fourth-best offensive rating have survived a stint without its two best players, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams. Minnesota’s size will provide a different test, especially without Gordon.

“The physicality of all three of these games will be high level. They’re all very good defensive teams and all very different offensive teams,” Adelman said.

“It will be three different ways to look at how teams could guard us if we’re lucky enough to be in the playoffs. I think that will be good for us to learn from. Hopefully, we’re learning while we’re winning games.”