With the worst attendance in the NBA, the Nuggets have gone from unloved to unnoticed in Denver. There can be no home-court advantage if nobody’s home, and crowds of fewer than 10,000 for two recent games have turned the Pepsi Center into a half-empty can. All the fizz has gone flat.

“Home-court advantage? I’ll tell you, right now we get around 9,000 fans a night. We don’t have much energy in the building, so that falls on us. We have to create our own energy,” Nuggets coach Mike Malone said Tuesday.

While franchise management has sold the idea of rookie point guard Emmanuel Mudiay ushering in a new day, discerning sports fans in Denver are not buying what the Nuggets are selling.

“I was here when we were winning all the time at home,” Nuggets forward Danilo Gallinari said. “We’ve got to get back to that same atmosphere in the arena.”

Yes, it’s early in the NBA season.

Yes, this is a town that breathes Broncos and bleeds orange.

But, yes, there seems to be a serious disconnect between the Nuggets and a disgruntled, disinterested fan base.

The Nuggets have played three home games, and that is a small sample size with 38 dates remaining on the home schedule. Denver, however, ranks last in league attendance by a wide margin.

“I get it. The fans are waiting to see: OK, is this really new? Is it really better? Is it worth their time?” Malone said. “Hopefully, throughout the season, if we can continue to grow and get better, they’ll see that things have changed for the better. But we have to do our part in helping to grow that back.”

The Nuggets have sold barely more than 60 percent of seats available in the arena, for an average of 12,239 fans per game. How bad is that? The Chicago Bulls lead the NBA at 21,847 fans per game, and the Milwaukee Bucks, whose attendance ranks 29th in the 30-team league, are averaging 14,412 fans per game.

Rather than get hung up emotionally on the trials and tribulations of the local NBA franchise, fans have done something far worse and turned their backs on a team that won 57 regular-season games as recently as 2013.

While defensive intensity has been preached, neither 48-minute focus nor relentless energy has been a given for these Nuggets. The fast break that has long been a trademark of basketball at altitude has not been much more reliable under Malone than it was during Brian Shaw’s brief, failed stint as coach. A big crowd came out Oct. 30 to watch the home opener against Minnesota, and Denver got blown out of the gym by 17 points.

“Our home opener, we (soiled) the bed,” Malone said. “There was excitement after the preseason. There was excitement after the Houston win (on the road). All right! Hey, maybe things are changing. Maybe it is a new day. And then we came out and it was such a letdown.”

Are there reasons to be intrigued? Yes. At age 19, Mudiay grows up a little as a point guard with every step-back jumper and no-look pass. Gallinari burns with a passion that makes you believe he wants to be the guy who leads this team back to the playoffs. When a 108-104 victory Monday over Portland finally gave the Nuggets their first taste of success in three home dates, a few thousand fans created a polite, little commotion during the fourth quarter.

So where is the city’s love for this basketball team? If the crowds were any more sparse, arena management might have to pull the plug on the nightly Kiss Cam promotion for lack of smooching partners.

“We’ve got to win,” Gallinari said. “With the winning, the crowds will turn out. So we’ve got to win.”

“Get Ready, It’s a New Day” is the sweet promotional campaign for this Nuggets season. In a slick television commercial, a rock anthem pounds home an uplifting message of renewed hope, accompanied by images of all the little things that make basketball beautiful and Mudiay looking to a bright future as the video fades artfully to black.

The reality of where the Nuggets are in the present, however, is the sound of one lonely voice shouting for any reason to believe in this team.

“Hey, Coach!” screamed a disappointed Nuggets fans as Malone and his players walked toward the Pepsi Center locker room after a recent loss to Utah. “When does my new day start?”

Mark Kiszla: mkiszla@denverpost.com