David Adelman couldn’t make sense of what he was watching, but he could make out the neighborhood. Minneapolis was his first NBA home. He knew the city well. Just not in this ravaged state.
“That’s a great community of people,” the first-year head coach of the Nuggets said. “I lived there for five years. And it was just so weird to see exactly where it was in the city, because I knew exactly where it was. And from the drone shot, it looked like a war zone. And that’s the country we live in.”
Before the Nuggets hosted the Pistons on Tuesday night, Adelman took a moment to reflect on the unrest in Minneapolis and the death of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse who was fatally shot by federal agents last Saturday.
“Just as a human being, that’s really hard to watch,” he said. “I’d say beyond that, if you want to look at this in layers, how do you explain it to your kids? It’s tough. My kids are of an age where they know what’s going on. Watching that video and trying to explain it to them makes you realize that I don’t know what the hell is going on either.”
The NBA postponed last Saturday’s game between the Timberwolves and Warriors “to prioritize the safety and security of the Minneapolis community” after the shooting of Pretti, according to a statement from the league.
The game was made up on Sunday, with anti-ICE chants echoing through Target Center at the end of a pregame moment of silence for Pretti. The day before Pretti’s death, mass protests had been held in Minneapolis speaking out against the federal government’s deployment of ICE to enforce Donald Trump’s immigration policy. Renee Good was shot and killed on Jan. 7 in Minneapolis amid the crackdown.
“For the second time in less than three weeks, we’ve lost another beloved member of our community in the most unimaginable way,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said through tears on Sunday. “As an organization, we are heartbroken for what we are having to witness and endure and watch. We just want to extend our thoughts, prayers and concern for Mr. Pretti, family, all the loved ones and everyone involved in such an unconscionable situation in a community that we really love, full of people who are, by nature, peaceful and prideful. We just stand in support of our great community here.”
Adelman, 44, was an assistant coach for the Timberwolves under his father, Naismith Hall of Famer Rick Adelman, from 2011-16. It was his first job in the NBA in a career that eventually led him to Denver, where he replaced Michael Malone as the Nuggets’ head coach in April.
In Denver, protesters held a rally against ICE and the Trump administration’s immigration policy on Sunday at the Capitol.
“It’s not about politics,” Adelman said. “It’s about human beings just taking care of each other, even if you don’t agree with each other. So yeah, extremely hard to watch. … I just hope we can figure it out. It’s supposed to be a bipartisan country. Hopefully, we can do that, come together. Whatever your main political views are, let’s not shoot each other.”
PHILADELPHIA — These are the stories nine Nuggets bench players and their coach will tell decades from now about a peculiar basketball game in Philadelphia.
It was a random enough game, one of 82 on a Monday in January, that it will fade from collective memory eventually. Just not from theirs. David Adelman will tell the story of “one of the best NBA wins I’ve ever been a part of in my life,” as he described it in the locker room, his stoic demeanor giving way to emotion that might’ve been verging on tears. “That was (freaking) special, man.”
He’ll reminisce about strategizing for a seemingly insurmountable matchup without seven of his usual rotation players, without his entire starting lineup, without Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray. He’ll tell the story of his staff’s edict to “keep five guys in the paint and try to win the ball,” because the Nuggets didn’t have a healthy center, and they were playing against one with an MVP trophy. He’ll recount how he urged them to “play fast” and hunt easy buckets to avoid the limitations of a half-court offense. How he had no choice but to use all nine available players, including two who knew only garbage time in the NBA until a few days earlier.
He’ll compare it to a February 2020 win over Utah, where the Nuggets had only seven guys at their disposal, also on the second night of a back-to-back. But one of the seven was Jokic.
“This one is different,” Adelman said. “This one is unique, because our best player didn’t play. … When they’re older, 20 years from now, they’ll probably grab a beer and talk about this game.”
Bruce Brown will tell the story of his game-winner that never actually went through the net. It was a fitting climax, first requiring the Nuggets to get a defensive stop while they were down one point with a six-second clock differential in overtime. They collapsed on 76ers rookie sensation VJ Edgecombe in the lane. Peyton Watson disrupted his driving layup. Spencer Jones blocked Joel Embiid’s tip-in attempt, tumbling over Edgecombe. While the bodies hit the floor, Brown was waiting at the free-throw line. The ball caromed to him for a one-man fast break.
Keep five guys in the paint and try to win the ball. Play fast. “I didn’t have to call a timeout,” Adelman said. Embiid tried to chase Brown down for a block, but the ball had already touched the backboard when the Nuggets’ nemesis got to it. Goaltending was called with 5.3 seconds left.
“I was in the perfect position,” Brown said. “I knew everyone was in the paint, trying to go rebound. I was just like, I’m going. There was only one person back.”
He’ll tell the story of human nature. How it worked to Denver’s advantage. How he’s sure that a Philadelphia squad with Embiid, Edgecombe, Tyrese Maxey and Paul George in the lineup overlooked this game after winning four in a row. How Brown could hardly blame them because he’s been doing this long enough to know that it’s almost unavoidable in an 82-game season. He was the most experienced player available for the Nuggets. Their other eight players had combined for 94 NBA starts before Philadelphia, and only 45 before this season.
“People are expecting us to lose. We have nothing to lose, right?” Brown thought. “Go out there and hoop. We’ve been on the other side before, where other teams sit people out, and the same thing happens. So I knew they were probably gonna take us a little light. … When I’m on the other side, sometimes that happens, right? The other team just comes out playing extremely hard, and you’re like, eh, bench guys; they’re not the starters.”
Jalen Pickett will tell the story of how he quieted his older brother. “He’s my biggest critic,” the 6-foot-2 point guard said, “so I can’t wait to see what he says tonight.” They don’t get to see each other often during the NBA season. This was an exception, a reunion in Philly. Pickett, who finished his college career at Penn State, scored a career-high 29 points to lead the Nuggets. He added five rebounds and seven assists.
“He was just absolutely in control of this basketball game,” Adelman said. “With all those great players on that court, he was the guy tonight.”
Pickett’s first three years of pro hoops have been an emotional roller coaster. Drafted in the second round in 2023, he became a focal point of the tension between former general manager Calvin Booth and coach Michael Malone. Palace intrigue encroached on his confidence at times. But a 7-for-11 outside-shooting performance in Pennsylvania? Three step-back 3s over the 7-foot Embiid? It was the best Pickett has felt on a basketball court since “probably back in college, having the ball every possession.” He’ll tell the story of the Nuggets’ nickname for one night: “We were calling ourselves the Denver G League.”
Hunter Tyson will tell the story of his go-ahead 4-point play, the crux of a 14-0 fourth-quarter run after Denver trailed 98-89 with 11 minutes to go. He scored half of his 14 points during that run. Perhaps no sequence was more crucial to the momentum than his contested rebound and pull-up 3-pointer in transition, which he buried while getting fouled. “We were just a bunch of dogs tonight,” he said afterward.
He’ll tell the story of the bench’s comradery and patience. Tyson was drafted five spots after Pickett in 2023. Seven of Denver’s nine available players have suited up for the Grand Rapids Gold, a developmental G League affiliate. Eight of the nine were either drafted by the Nuggets outside of the top 20, or signed by the Nuggets out of college as undrafted free agents. Before this game, Tyson had played 50 total minutes in the first 35 contests of the season.
“He might be our hardest worker,” Pickett said.
“We’re blessed with the opportunity to be in the NBA, to be in this position. So I really try to keep a good perspective about things,” Tyson said. “And maybe even if I’m not playing as much as I want, just try and get a little better each day.”
He’ll tell the story of how that patience was a virtue on the final play of overtime, when Maxey released a potential game-winning floater. It threatened the three hours of maximum effort Denver had devoted. But it rolled off the rim as time expired, igniting a spontaneous celebration of hugs.
“Dude, I swear it sat there forever,” Tyson said, laughing. “I was really glad it didn’t go in.”
Zeke Nnaji will tell the story of Adelman’s relentless encouragement, which Nnaji says dates back months before the one game when it was most necessary. “He says that we’re so deep, we’re so talented, that on a random night, it could be anyone’s night. He’s constantly hammering that message home,” Nnaji said.
“I think it’s really DA. … He believed. And we all believed.”
Nnaji is the third-longest tenured Nugget behind Jokic and Murray, but his four-year, $32 million contract has been widely ridiculed as a waste of money on a player who mostly rides the bench. For at least one night, none of that mattered. Nnaji was Embiid’s equal, amassing 21 points, eight rebounds, two steals and two blocks off the bench as Denver’s fourth-string center. He’ll tell the story of how it felt like a “normal” game, if only because the reserves are so accustomed to playing pickup together on the practice court. They need the reps.
“We play with each other so much,” he said. “Especially when everyone (in the starting lineup) is healthy, we’re always playing with each other. … Opportunities like this are so rare.”
Adelman will tell the story of Denver’s pregame shootaround someday, once he can get through it without choking up. “This morning, walking through (the plan) with nine people,” he said, “it was really special.” He had to stop himself there.
The nine also consisted of Julian Strawther, DaRon Holmes II and Curtis Jones. Others who contributed behind the scenes will also tell the story of this game, though. The team security guard who ran down the back hallway, ecstatic. The starters who sat out and cheered from the bench, including Aaron Gordon, who sat at his locker room stall perusing the box score afterward with a proud smile. The player development coaches who work closely with Denver’s reserves. As two of them walked through an empty arena toward the team bus, one declared, “Shoutout PD,” lifting the Modelo can he was carrying in a toast to themselves.
When Nnaji tells the story, he’ll always return to Pickett’s deadeye shooting. “There were a couple of times Pick hit a step-back on Embiid, and I just go crazy whenever he hits one of those,” Nnaji said.
Pickett will tell that story, too. His children and grandchildren will hear that one.
“Oh my gosh,” he said, perhaps still in some disbelief. “I’m gonna tell ‘em I was giving MVPs buckets out there.”
NEW ORLEANS — Life was detected in the most cavernous building in the NBA for a few minutes on Wednesday, as the Pelicans flew to an early 13-point lead over their lethargic visitors.
Life was briefly detected again toward the end of the proceedings, when the Pelicans sliced a 19-point deficit to six after Nikola Jokic fouled out. There might have even been noise from the uninhabited upper deck.
But the Nuggets escaped Smoothie King Center in the end with a 125-118 win, buoyed by a mostly solid night of defense and Peyton Watson’s career-high 32 points.
In his second game starting for Christian Braun, Watson finished with a 13-for-19 double-double. Jokic added 28 points, 11 rebounds and 12 assists on another night with two starters missing.
And Denver (11-3) finished the game with a frontcourt of Zeke Nnaji and Jonas Valanciunas after Jokic’s disqualification. Valanciunas knocked down a pair of clutch 15-footers to fend off a late comeback from the Pelicans (2-13).
From the start, this was a game layered with more intrigue than the records indicated. Zion Williamson, the Pelicans’ explosive but aloof star forward, was cleared to play after missing the last eight games. Denver’s Aaron Gordon was a last-minute scratch from the lineup for hamstring injury management, which sidelined him for one other game earlier this season.
These developments were related. Gordon has been described by Nuggets coach David Adelman as one of “only a few human beings walking around that can deal with Zion Williamson.” Adelman mirrored their minutes when the Pelicans visited Denver three weeks ago, determined to force Williamson to play against that matchup.
Without Gordon, Nnaji was enlisted as the starting power forward. He had been out of the rotation entirely to start the season.
The idea had a sound precedent, though. Gordon was out when the Nuggets hosted New Orleans in February, and former coach Michael Malone also started Nnaji for the occasion. Williamson scored an inefficient 14 points on 13 shots that day, as Trey Murphy III had to shoulder more of the Pelicans’ offensive burden. As a team, they went 4 for 11 on shots defended by Nnaji.
This time, even with two rim protectors on the floor in Nnaji and Watson, the Pelicans scored 18 points in the paint (and 23 total) in the first eight minutes. It didn’t help that Jokic committed four turnovers before he made a shot, surrendering easy transition opportunities to a struggling team that has played faster since firing coach Willie Green last week.
Out of an early Adelman timeout, the Nuggets gave up two consecutive fast breaks that ended with New Orleans missing the initial layup only to score on a second chance.
“They had a coaching change,” Adelman said pregame. “New energy. … So this is a totally different challenge.”
Jokic finally kick-started the Nuggets with five straight points after they fell behind 23-10. He was on his way to a triple-double by the end of the third quarter — those are the norm when he faces New Orleans — but the upstart Pels showed him multiple defenders and made him work all night. On offense, he finished with nine turnovers. On defense, rookie Derik Queen wasn’t afraid to attack him off the dribble.
Drafted 13th overall after a controversial trade in June, Queen is the latest new-gen prospect whose play style is clearly in Jokic’s lineage. He was responsible for Colorado State’s heartbreaking NCAA Tournament loss at the buzzer last March. Now, a franchise desperate for future answers wants to develop him into a hub of half-court offense. He paced the Pels on Wednesday with 30 points, nine boards and four assists.
The Nuggets will face another Jokic disciple on Friday, when they visit Houston for an NBA Cup showdown. Turkish big man Alperen Sengun has helped establish the Rockets as the highest-rated offense in the league early this season. All five teams in Denver’s NBA Cup group are 1-1 with two games left to play, making this a critical swing game.
As for Williamson against the short-handed Nuggets? Nnaji and company settled in against him for a performance that would make Gordon proud. New Orleans won his minutes, but he was held to 14 points on 13 shots.
“It’s an everybody job,” Adelman said. “It’s one guy gets matched up with him, but when he attacks the basket, he’s an historical paint-point player. Everybody has to key in on him. And you can’t let him go get second opportunities. If you guarded him well once and he misses the shot, he’s so good at going back and getting it again. … Sometimes you have to wrap the guy up because he’s so explosive. But it’s a team challenge with that guy. Very, very unique talent.”
In the latest edition of the Nuggets Ink podcast, beat writer Bennett Durando and sports editor Matt Schubert reconvene after the first week of the regular season. Among the topics discussed:
Aaron Gordon got the season started with a 50-burger against the Golden State Warriors. The Nuggets forward says he’s not as athletic as he once was, but is he the best he’s been at basketball, as he contended this offseason?
Is Tim Hardaway Jr. going to be the Nuggets’ sixth man all season? How has Jonas Valanciunas fit in with the second unit? Is Julian Strawther going to remain tethered to the bench?
How has new head coach David Adelman fared running the show? His rotations? His adjustments? What’s been different between how he runs things and how Michael Malone did?
Emails and iTunes reviews … would’ve been read had anyone sent them in!
SAN DIEGO — Aaron Gordon telegraphed the prevailing ethos of Nuggets training camp the day before it began.
Prompted about balancing his focus between offense and defense after a breakout year shooting the 3-pointer, Gordon volleyed back a counterpoint: There will be no balance.
“I’m gonna just turn up on defense,” the power forward said. “We have so much talent on the offensive side, I’m not even really worried about it.”
Defensive intensity has since developed into the defining characteristic of Denver’s first two days together as a team. The first play of the first practice Tuesday resulted in a collision that forced two-way wing Spencer Jones to get stitches. Jamal Murray told reporters Wednesday that turnovers have been an obstacle while trying to get into an organized half-court offense. Bruce Brown said he and fellow bench player Peyton Watson have been picking up full-court to wreak havoc on the starters.
In the modern NBA, defense is vegetables. Especially for a team that has grown overly dependent on its effortless scoring efficiency over the years.
The Nuggets are eating their vegetables this week. Keeping the diet for a full season will be the tough part.
“I think defense sometimes in our league is so hard that it’s not how you drill it,” first-year coach David Adelman said. “It’s just, do you want to do it? It really is. … I would love to see our defense get better. If our offense takes a little step back, we’ll be fine. To have the depth we have, there’s no excuse (not) to play extremely hard. Put your hands on people. Not worrying about being in foul trouble like we’ve had to do in the past. So it’s a different way of looking at the game, and we have to demand it every day.”
Adelman was primarily responsible for Denver’s offense before his promotion this year. The Nuggets ranked no worse than seventh at that end of the floor during his eight seasons as an assistant coach.
But his emphasis has been on defensive accountability and schematic variety since he took over for Michael Malone. The Nuggets ranked unusually low in defensive rating for a championship-winning team back in 2022-23 (15th in the NBA) and regressed to 21st last season — their first as a bottom-10 defense since 2017-18. That was the year before their first playoff appearance with Nikola Jokic.
“Better communication between the players right now, just trying to focus on rotations and everybody covering for each other,” Murray said. “It doesn’t have to be perfect, but as long as guys are talking and trying to put themselves in the right spots, that’s what it is. Defense is reactionary.”
“I think we’ve always had a good frame for defense,” said Christian Braun, who will match up against star guards when Denver plays within that man-to-man framework. “We’ve always had a good idea. … If we can get to a point where we’re playing at the playoff level every single night, we’re not trying to outscore teams, I think that’ll be good for us. Try to blow teams out a little more this year.”
The “frame” involves Jokic playing up the floor against pick-and-rolls while a “low man” rotates from the weak-side corner to prevent the roller from scoring an easy layup or dunk — at its best, setting up a series of high-energy help rotations around the perimeter. Problem is, the scramble mindset can grow exhausting, and Jokic isn’t always effective enough at deterring the ball-handler at the level of the screen. When Adelman took over as interim head coach in April, he started making adjustments more frequently, such as stationing Jokic farther down the floor or zoning up.
Now Jared Dudley has been hired to run the defense, and even if the base scheme remains the same, Adelman has labeled himself a believer in zone. He thinks if the Nuggets work at it more consistently, they can use it more often during the regular season.
“(Dudley) kind of started talking to me in the summer about the defense,” Brown said. “We’re just being more physical, picking up (the ball-handler at) three-quarters court, depending obviously on who you are. Just being more physical and being more assertive.”
Indeed, Nuggets role players have been venturing into the backcourt at training camp to apply extra pressure, to ratchet up intensity. Pressing consistently throughout an 82-game regular season is unsustainable — Adelman knows that — but the concept has its merits in a low-stakes preseason setting.
“It’s good in a competitive way, and I think if guys can do it, they should be doing it, if you’re not playing a lot of minutes,” Adelman said. “But I also think because we have so many lead ball-handlers on this team — not just Jamal — they’re going to get picked up. So it’s great practice for a guy like Peyton Watson who can initiate offense. Aaron Gordon, Cam Johnson, Jamal, Jalen (Pickett). All these guys.”
The number to beat is 115.1. That’s how many points Denver allowed per 100 possessions last season.
Gordon has a more ambitious goal in mind, one that would require shaving three points off that number.
“If we get to around top-10 defensively,” he said, “it’s going to put us in a position to win it all.”
And without these two, the Nuggets are no longer bitter and a whole lot better.
This is not a reset. It is a cleansing of negative vibes, paranoia and a bench that was thinner than Flat Stanley.
When last season ended, there was a feeling the Nuggets were going to run it back, throwing their arms in the air and asking coach David Adelman to sprinkle pixie dust on an aging roster increasingly defined by injuries and a lack of versatility.
Four months later, that’s all changed.
The Nuggets hired two general managers, Jon Wallace and Ben Tenzer, who made a trade that immediately restored title expectations. Those have only grown stronger with the unfortunate season-ending injury to Houston’s Fred VanVleet, the possibility of mental and physical fatigue in OKC, and the inclusion of six Nuggets on ESPN’s NBA Rank Top 100 released this week.
This is the deepest team Jokic has ever played with, and it’s the best chance he will have to win another title in Denver.
Sure, Jokic, who was No. 1 on the aforementioned list, has four more years left of his prime. But he will never have another prime opportunity like this.
He has Jonas Valanciunas, ESPN’s No. 87, as his backup. Are you kidding me? Valanciunas will deliver double-doubles. The previous backups for Jokic were lucky to deliver double-figure minutes. Jokic, yes, Jokic, will be fresh for the playoffs.
Everything has fallen into place this offseason as the Nuggets prepare to hold their media day on Monday, starting with the subtractions.
Multiple things can be true when discussing Michael Porter Jr. and Malone.
MPJ was candid, accommodating, and earned high marks for playing through three back surgeries and assorted other ailments. He won a ring, but wanted an offense to run through him. His departure has featured a series of revelations about his off-court life, former teammates and, this week, an admission that he is unsure if he wants to play beyond this year.
What does it say about the Brooklyn Nets that they are trying to tank and want the 2018 first-round pick to set the culture for their battery of younger players? Wish MPJ nothing but success, but if this deal nets another Nuggets title, Wallace and Tenzer will deserve a statue.
Malone deserved a news conference and a proper goodbye upon his firing. He also deserved blame for helping create the heavy pall that hung over the Nuggets last season because of his distrust of former GM Calvin Booth. It permeated the organization and oozed into the locker room as players tuned out an increasingly irritable Malone.
Porter and Malone are what the Nuggets needed two years ago. Cameron Johnson, ESPN’s No. 67, and Adelman are what they need now.
Johnson is not the floor spacer that MPJ was. But he is smarter and more equipped to contribute defensively. There is a selflessness about his game that has drawn comparisons to Aaron Gordon, No. 40 in the rankings. Durability is a question. Nothing else is. He is exactly the type of player Jokic makes better.
As for Adelman, the players like him — and not just because he is not Malone. Will his meritocracy and message work on the second night of a back-to-back in Dallas on Jan. 14? Not sure. But the players’ loyalty to him gives it a decent shot.
Who knew that Wallace’s return to the organization would have such an impact on Jamal Murray? With Wallace in Murray’s corner, while also challenging him, the guard has enjoyed a tremendous offseason. He is in great shape and has had a positive effect on team chemistry because of the way he has communicated and hooped with the young players.
Who knew that Tim Hardaway Jr. would sign a veteran minimum deal after starting 77 games for the Pistons last season? For all of the legitimate handwringing about bench scoring, Hardaway is one of the league’s most underrated signings. He profiles perfectly for the spot-up 3s created by passes from Jokic and Valanciunas.
And who new that Bruce Brown would want to come back? OK, we all did. Brown is not the player he was two years ago due to injuries. But he is a trusted reserve and creates a fight for Adelman’s up-for-grab minutes between Jalen Pickett, another player expected to take a big step forward, Julian Strawther and Peyton Watson.
It is impossible to look at the Nuggets and not think of a championship.
There is no guarantee that Denver will beat the Thunder or solve the Timberwolves. But they match up as well against the champs as anyone, and the shiny offensive options give them different ways to counter Minnesota.
No one in the East is beating them — or anyone else who advances out of the West.
If the Nuggets had kept the band together, Jokic would have given them a puncher’s chance. But last season, one in which he averaged a triple-double, showed he needed help. The Nuggets have better shooters, more depth and less drama.
Jokic turns 31 in February. He will not be the best player forever. That honor could belong to Victor Wembanyama as soon as this season.
Of all the problems the last two years — exhaustion, tension, lack of 3-point shooting — there are none left. Jokic is still here. Still in his prime. And he has teammates and a fresh voice from a coach worthy of his talent.
Now is the time for him to get another one. Likely his last in Denver.
BROOKLYN, N.Y. — To get their first win of the season, the Nuggets almost had to sacrifice their second.
Michael Malone knew the risk he was taking. It narrowly paid off Monday night in Toronto with an overtime breakthrough. But the physical strain on his starters was visible 24 hours later as they instantly struggled to defend the perimeter against a team widely projected to be the worst in the NBA.
The Nuggets allowed 40 first-quarter points and fell behind by as many as 17 in the second before they revived themselves again for a 144-139 win over the Nets on Tuesday — again, in overtime.
Nikola Jokic lifted his team with another masterpiece: 29 points, 18 rebounds and 16 assists on 9-of-16 shooting. In a deja vu sequence down by three at the end of regulation, the Nuggets opted to go for two points with 33.8 seconds left. Malone called for a Jokic post-up, like Monday, which Jokic easily executed, like Monday. Then, like Monday, the Nuggets’ opponent missed a free throw, allowing them a chance to tie it in the final seconds without needing a three. Again, Denver dialed up a Jokic post-up.
“We are trying to get there to see, are they gonna double?” the center said.
Brooklyn didn’t. The three-time MVP backed his way to an effortless baby hook with nine ticks left.
“They doubled him a lot tonight,” Malone said. “This was more, they waited for him to dribble the ball and then the double came. I’m so happy I get to coach Nikola because I can’t imagine game-planning for guarding that guy.”
The only difference between their back-to-back magic acts: This time, the Nuggets left enough time to give up a wide-open corner three as time expired. Dorian Finney-Smith clanked it.
And again, the starting lineup found itself logging extra hours at the office. Malone had already gone to an eight-man rotation in the second half of the Toronto game.
“Obviously we found ourselves in a game last night that we kind of shortened our rotation up a little bit in the second half, feeling the pressure of trying to get the first win of the season,” he said before opening tip at Barclays Center. “And when you look at the box score after the game, especially going into the second night of a back-to-back in Brooklyn, you have your starters all at or near 40 minutes. And that’s not sustainable. We can’t do that. Game three, it was cool, man. Let’s get our first win, kind of take a deep breath. But that’s not sustainable.”
His foresight was probably more immediate than he hoped. The Nets shot 12 of 24 from beyond the arc in the first half. When they weren’t launching, Denver’s defenders took the bait anyway, allowing drivers to get behind them and playing catch-up on rotations. After another rough bench stint, Brooklyn led 47-30 with 9:42 remaining in the half.
The Nuggets’ collective redemption arrived in the form of a snarling, sharpshooting Russell Westbrook about an hour later. He had already been the best version of himself in the first half, zipping brilliant entry passes to Jokic and bullying his way to the foul line with the second unit (then converting the free throws). But on the last possession of the third quarter, with Denver trailing 99-93, he stepped into just his second 3-point make of the season. On the first possession of the fourth, he drove and kicked to Peyton Watson for a corner three. Tie game.
His next pull-up 3-point attempt, ill-advised or not, gave him 22 points on 12 shots and capped a 13-2 run. It was 106-101, Denver.
Russ giveth and Russ taketh. He shanked an uncontested dunk with his left hand during a quick 5-0 answer from Brooklyn, setting the stage for Denver’s second consecutive suspenseful finish.
“It’s hard to win in this league,” the backup point guard said. “People think it’s easy, man. It’s hard. Especially when you’re a team that’s won year after year and always been in the running for NBA championships. It’s hard. We’ll get everybody’s best shot. We’ve gotta be prepared for it. However we’ve gotta get wins right now, we’ll take them.”
Michael Porter Jr. bounced back from his inefficient first week of the season, shooting 4 for 7 from 3-point range. Jamal Murray added 24 points. Aaron Gordon contributed 22. Denver quickly pulled away in the extra period after Jokic scored or assisted on its first six points.
“I’m glad we had the momentum going in, and I think we controlled the overtime, so that is a good thing,” Jokic said. “We found baskets when we needed it.”
The Nuggets remain winless in preseason play with one game remaining after a 124-94 blowout loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday at Ball Arena. The last chance to earn a win is Thursday in Minnesota.
Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and Russell Westbrook were out this time for the Nuggets, leaving them with a cast of role players to fend off Oklahoma City’s full starting lineup — an inverse of Sunday’s game, when Denver ran the starters for three quarters against Phoenix’s bench.
Nuggets coach Michael Malone said he had planned to rest Murray for this game even before his knee started bothering him Sunday while warming up.
What awaits Strawther after outstanding preseason?
Denver’s clear standout performers this preseason (other than the three-time MVP) have been Michael Porter Jr. and Julian Strawther, both of whom continued to carry the offense during the first-half minutes Tuesday. Strawther made his first five shots, including 3-pointers in rhythm, a driving floater and a couple of buckets in the lane, where he used his footwork or body to go up strong through traffic. He finished with 12 points.
Most importantly in these four games, he is 8 for 18 from distance, where his teammates have struggled. Christian Braun, who’s expected to start at shooting guard over Strawther, is 1 for 13. That probably won’t change how the rotation will shake out, though.
“Obviously it’s never going to be just about who’s playing better in a vacuum,” Malone said when asked about the position battle. “It’s always going to be about, yes, who’s playing well, but also who complements that unit. And right now to be honest, I think C.B. and Jamal and Michael and Aaron (Gordon) and Nikola, that’s a group that really complements each other well. I think (Russell Westbrook), when we get Peyton Watson back — and that’s been really hard for us, not to have Peyton — but I think Russ, Julian, Peyton, Dario (Saric) and whoever else, I think that’s a really good complementary group as well. But I will give Julian some more chances to get out there and start and play with that (starting) group.”
Watson (hamstring) still hasn’t played this preseason, but Malone says the plan is to have him ready for the season opener next Thursday at Ball Arena.
Nnaji puts together consecutive good games
As frustrated as Malone was with his team’s collective performance against the Suns on Sunday, he pointed to Zeke Nnaji’s fourth-quarter minutes as one of the few positives.
Nnaji earned a starting nod Tuesday and built on his productive outing with 11 points, three rebounds, two steals and three blocks, including one against Jalen Williams in space. There were occasional lapses, too — a ball-screen miscommunication leading to an easy dunk in the first half, a ball fake getting him to leave his feet for a blow-by in the second half — but the highlights should be a welcomed confidence boost. Nnaji’s form has looked smoother, too. He buried a couple of 3s Tuesday.
Before opening tip, Malone gave a candid answer when asked if he believes Nnaji is better at the four or the five, speaking to the general skill set the coach wants to see from Nnaji.
“I don’t get into all that. I think that’s a bunch of malarkey,” Malone said. “‘Are you a four or are you a five?’ In today’s NBA, you’re a big, you’re a small. … This is not 1980s where it’s three-out, two-in. Zeke’s a big. So go out there and play your game. I mean, is Dario Saric a center in anybody’s eyes? Well, he is for us. So yeah, the whole four (or) five thing, I just don’t really understand.”
Two-way guard sneaks up depth chart
Without Murray and Westbrook, this exhibition offered a glimpse of other ways the Nuggets can initiate offense. They used a variety of players to bring the ball up, from Aaron Gordon to Strawther to Braun. And notably, in Malone’s nine-man rotation during the early stages of the game, two-way player Trey Alexander made an appearance over Jalen Pickett, who checked in during the third quarter and played most of the second half.
If there’s anything definitive from Denver’s 0-4 preseason start, it’s that the end of the bench just doesn’t have much to work with. Malone has turned red in the face during the second halves of every game so far. The Nuggets held up pretty well against a mismatch in the first half without Jokic — it was after halftime that they fell apart again.
This was the impression left by the Los Angeles Lakers after the Denver Nuggets vanquished them in the first round of the playoffs. The Lakers teased with greatness, avoided a sweep with resilience, but more than anything complained about everything. Even their own head coach.
“We have stretches where we just don’t know what we are doing on both ends of the floor,” star Anthony Davis said in a direct salvo at Darvin Ham following the Game 2 loss.
The Lakers fired Ham after two seasons as it became increasingly clear he’d lost the respect of Davis and LeBron James.
Now, the Lakers are targeting UConn coach Dan Hurley. Not a podcaster and former player like J.J. Redick, but the Nick Saban of college basketball.
Uh-oh, Nuggets. What was already an important offseason must take on an added sense of urgency as the uphill climb back to the top of the mountain has increased from a 5 percent to 7 percent grade.
The Lakers might actually figure it out, becoming a bigger threat in an already laughably strong Western Conference. It reminds me of when the Dodgers were owned by glorified parking lot attendant Frank McCourt from 2004 to 2012. There was always the suspicion if the Dodgers ever got a suitable leader they would morph into a monster. Since Guggenheim Baseball Management took over in 2013, the Dodgers have reached the playoffs 11 consecutive seasons, won 10 division titles and the 2020 World Series.
Yes, insert your Rockies joke here.
Hurley won’t own the Lakers, but if he accepts the job he will run the Lakers. According to ESPN, the Lakers are prepared to offer Hurley a massive contract to take over the organization, putting into place his culture and vision for player development (likely including drafting Bronny James).
Hurley is a human Red Bull. He waves his arms, claps his hands, and screams until he is rouge in the face. Whether this type of intensity is sustainable with grown men over 82 games is a fair question. But Hurley is to Redick — the current second choice — what French vanilla is to Milli Vanilli. The Lakers will be better if he takes the job, and they achieve continuity (they’ve had seven coaches since 2011) and success (they boast a .519 winning percentage since the COVID crown in 2020).
Which raises the question: How will the Nuggets improve? Denver often demonstrates the patience of a Tibetan monk. The Nuggets are not expected to trade Christian Braun, Peyton Watson or, most notably, Michael Porter Jr. Porter is the biggest chip if the team wants to shake the snow globe. Shipping him out likely means keeping Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and filling two needs with the contract space opened by Porter’s departure. It is unlikely. But, it would signal valuing depth and shooting in the aggregate over the unique potential of a 6-foot-10 offensive force coming off his best season — second-round playoff disappearance notwithstanding.
The Nuggets have followed the philosophy of wanting to win not only now, but from now on. General manager Calvin Booth elected not to add at the trade deadline, preferring not to disrupt team chemistry. Nuggets coach Michael Malone is quick to remind us that during their dynasty the San Antonio Spurs never won back-to-back titles. However, the Spurs were not competing in this Western Conference. Doing nothing means falling behind.
It is no longer cool to say the Nuggets lost to the Timberwolves because they were embarrassed by the Mavericks, who, if you embrace recency bias, possess the new best player in the world in Luka Doncic.
The Nuggets need a better ball-handler to back up Jamal Murray. They require a rim protector and a true backup center to ease the minutes and defensive burden on Nikola Jokic. It would be nice to land a 3-point threat if they trade Reggie Jackson and Nnaji and lose Caldwell-Pope to free agency. And Malone is going to have to allocate more minutes to the development of Braun and Watson to grow their role in the postseason.
A start? Adding Gordon Hayward and drafting DaRon Holmes. Also, the Nuggets need Murray’s best season — an all-star selection, and improved health in the playoffs — from start to finish.
The 2023 Nuggets will walk together forever. Replicating that magic is the goal but requires more work.
It feels like a lifetime ago that the Broncos won Super Bowl 50 and arrogantly assumed they could win with any quarterback because of their gnarly defense. They haven’t been to the playoffs since. The Nuggets are in a much better position, but they cannot take their situation for granted.
UConn is likely coming to Los Angeles. Nuggets, UCan’t stand pat.
As a longer-than-expected offseason tips off for the Denver Nuggets, team officials want to be sure they separate from what coach Michael Malone calls “the emotional reaction to losing” before any major decisions are made.
“I think you always want to take time to let everything sink in and go back and take a quality look at everything that happened during the season,” general manager Calvin Booth said, “and then make decisions from that point.”
As those reflections begin, Booth, Malone and team president Josh Kroenke addressed several topics during a 34-minute news conference Thursday. Chief among them: Do the Nuggets need to find a way to upgrade their roster?
It was telling that Booth focused heavily on advancing the development of Denver’s youngest players.
“I think (the 2023 draft picks) need more seasoning,” he said. “They need to get in the gym. They need to play Summer League. They need to get stronger. Obviously, maybe in our top seven, we can use a little bit more talent. Maybe there’s a way to upgrade one or two positions. … Get a guy that’s a more accomplished NBA player for whatever (roster) slot they’re taking. But I don’t see anything that’s, like, crazy out of sorts for our roster.”
All indications from the extensive availability were that Denver isn’t rushing to make drastic changes to its roster. Booth doubled down on his previously stated team-building philosophy, which involves continuity achieved through drafting and developing to fill out the fringes of an expensive championship roster. He acknowledged the need to address the bench this offseason, potentially even with outside acquisitions, but it’s clear the Nuggets would prefer to rely on home-grown depth.
That Kroenke later expressed faith in the starting lineup — despite its poor showing against Minnesota — was among multiple signs that Denver isn’t rushing to shop Michael Porter Jr. as a trade piece this summer. Malone also rebutted Porter’s own comments taking blame for the early exit.
“We think we still have the best starting five in basketball, even though we fell just short this year,” Kroenke said. “Could have gone either way up until the last few minutes. So we don’t think we’re far off.”
Here’s a look at some of the other topics addressed Thursday:
Will Nuggets cross second apron to keep Kentavious Caldwell-Pope?
Booth said: “We spend a lot of time looking at the second apron and all this other stuff. I think for me personally, it’s win a championship, one. Two, we have to look at the overall financial picture. And three, second apron. And I know the second apron is daunting, and there’s all kinds of restrictions, but I don’t think that’s first on our priority list. KCP’s been a great addition the last couple years. We obviously would love to have him back. We’re gonna take a hard look at what that looks like.”
Analysis: Denver’s roster payroll already exceeds the luxury tax line and the first tax apron, resulting in a list of penalties imposed by the new collective bargaining agreement. If Kentavious Caldwell-Pope exercises his $15.4 million player or if the Nuggets re-sign him in free agency, they’ll trigger the second apron next season — meaning even more penalties. But Booth’s comment Thursday indicated that won’t be what stops Denver from retaining Caldwell-Pope.
Kroenke also said that while he’s cognizant of the long-term consequences of existence in the second apron, he’s comfortable going there to make the most of a Nikola Jokic-led roster.
Alignment between Michael Malone and Calvin Booth
Booth said: “We’ve talked about this a lot upstairs. The general manager, front office job oftentimes is to make sure the long-term view is something that we’re satisfied with. And Coach Malone’s down there in the trenches trying to win every night. And a lot of times, those things are aligned, but sometimes they ebb and flow away from each other.”
Malone said: “I’m thinking how do we win the next game? That’s my job. And Calvin as a GM is thinking about how do we win the next couple of years? That’s his job. And Josh is overseeing all that and understanding how to piece all that together.”
Analysis: When Booth and Malone made these comments, they were answering separate questions about different topics. So this has clearly been a theme within the organization in the days following the Nuggets’ second-round exit.
The franchise needs its general manager and head coach to be on the same page in order to maximize all 15 roster spots during the regular season. Most of what that boils down to is Booth’s aforementioned dependence on drafting and developing against Malone’s reluctance to trust young players with extended minutes. (That’s not a tendency that’s exclusive to one NBA head coach.)
Nikola Jokic’s backup big men
Booth said: “We’ll get a great chance to evaluate Vlatko (Cancar) this summer. … If (Slovenia is) able to get out of those qualifiers in Athens, he’ll be available to play in the Olympics, and I believe he’ll be playing in those qualifiers. … Zeke (Nnaji) is a young player. He brings energy to the game. He gives effort every night. He’s trying to grow into both sides of the ball. I think originally we drafted him to be a four. He’s ended up playing a lot of five. I don’t think it matters as much off the bench, but there are certain matchups where it becomes a little bit more problematic. But he has to get better. He has to be ready for his opportunities when they come. I think he’s gonna have a good NBA career.”
Analysis: Cancar missed the entire 2023-24 season after tearing his left ACL during a national team game last summer. His contract has a $2.3 million team option this offseason. The Nuggets need affordable salaries like his, but it would be difficult to justify holding onto him if his health continued to be an issue. If he’s able to make his return in international competition (and maybe even play against Jokic or Jamal Murray in France), it’ll be a huge boost.
As for Nnaji, his four-year, $32 million contract signed last October has aged controversially due to his lack of playing time. Booth seems to prefer Nnaji as a backup four instead of a backup center to Jokic, but if that’s the case, it still leaves a roster hole at the five. (Especially if DeAndre Jordan doesn’t return.) Nnaji’s contract is tradable until it isn’t. If the Nuggets become a second-apron team, they won’t be able to aggregate salaries such as his to get back a larger AAV.
Is Christian Braun an NBA starter?
Booth said: “He obviously has the intangibles and the physical strength and athleticism and defense (to be a starter). And he’s gonna have to make some improvements, as he has, shooting the ball. But I don’t know how you could see a player in his second year that’s done what he’s done and not think he has a chance of starting. He’s ahead of schedule in that regard.”
Malone: “I think Christian Braun, it’s all gonna come down to one thing. To be a shooting guard in the NBA, you’ve gotta be able to make shots. That’s the bottom line. So if you want to simplify CB’s future as a starting two-guard in the NBA, it’ll be determined upon his ability to be a 38% or above 3-point shooter.”
Analysis: If Caldwell-Pope moves on in free agency, this is the leading applicant for Denver’s fifth-starter opening. The No. 21 overall pick in the 2022 draft, Braun was in Malone’s closing lineup for much of the Minnesota series due to his defensive prowess against Anthony Edwards. That’s an impressive notch in the 23-year-old’s arrow, on top of playing rotation minutes in the NBA Finals as a rookie.
In an ideal world, Braun would come off the bench again next season, improving Denver’s 2024-25 depth and giving him one more year to develop before making that jump to a starting role. But to Malone’s point, here’s the good news: Braun already shot 38.4% from 3-point range this season.
The Timberwolves, meanwhile, received 22 minutes and 11 points from Naz Reid, a stretch-4-type post who gave Aaron Gordon and Nikola Jokic more real estate to defend. Nickeil Alexander-Walker played 17 minutes.
Hindsight makes geniuses of us all, granted. But while Jokic huffed and Gordon puffed Sunday, Peyton Watson became more noticeable — by his absence. As Minnesota chipped away at a 20-point Nuggs lead, one of the best defenders on the roster was nowhere to be found.
Now in a do-or-die, win-or-else Game 7, you could understand Malone’s reluctance to trust his second-year wing in a pinch. P-Swat was 0-for-7 from the floor in this series going into Sunday night. The Nuggets lined up the chess pieces as if they could afford only one true defense-first option down the stretch — and again, Braun brought plenty of juice.
Malone said before Game 5 that this was about matchups, and that Minnesota’s defense demands shooters at every spot. That’s not in P-Swat’s arsenal right now, and Holiday brought flashes of brilliance, on the road, when Denver needed it most.
Because as the eulogies are read and ballads sung and postmortems written about where a repeat run at an NBA title went sadly off the rails, P-Swat feels like something of a nexus point. Not just for what happened. But for where the Nuggets go from here. And how.
Nuggets general manager Calvin Booth raised eyebrows this past October when he told The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor that he “want(s) dudes that we try to develop, and it’s sustainable. If it costs us the chance to win a championship (in 2024), so be it. It’s worth the investment. It’s more about winning three out of six, three out of seven, four out of eight than it is about trying to go back-to-back.”
Booth walked back those comments (among others) later, but it sure did very neatly explain an off-season of attrition — no more Bruce Brown or Jeff Green, thanks CBA — that came on the heels of the first title in franchise history. If ’22-23 was the masterpiece, then ’23-24 would be the experiment. Namely, can we replace Brown and Green with kids and still reach the NBA Finals?
Well, no. Heck, no. Not this year, at any rate.
Booth’s stated masterplan was also curious given that Malone, a stickler for eternal verities such as defense and selflessness, suffers neither fools nor rookies gladly. If Malone doesn’t trust you, you don’t play. Period. The Minnesota series, which started with the Nuggets dropping Games 1 and 2 at home, threw development out a 35-story window.
I’m not suggesting Malone and Booth aren’t on the same page here, although it’s fair to wonder. However, I would humbly advise the powers that be to pick a lane and stick with it going forward. For the window’s sake. For Joker’s sake.
The MVP needs help. Now. Jokic, owner of the greatest hands in modern NBA annals, snatched 15 boards in the first half. He finished with 19. Following one misfire in the third quarter, what looked like four Minnesota bodies went up for the carom while No. 15 was stranded at the top of the arc. The Joker seemed positively crestfallen.
Since April 1 through Game 7, the Big Honey logged 732 minutes in 19 games, or 38.5 per game. From April 1 through the end of the Suns series last spring, he’d played 467 minutes in 13 appearances (35.9 per tilt).
The Nuggs danced with history last week. And landed on the wrong side of it, face-first. Malone’s had better days. He’ll have better ones in the future. But Game 7’s epic collapse felt an awful lot like coaching not to lose. Which, more often than not, gets you beat on this stage.
The Wolves, meanwhile, were built by Tim Connelly to dethrone the dynasty he’d started in Denver. See KAT? See Ant, waving and mugging for the cameras? They’re the bar now.
It’s on Booth and Malone to volley Connelly’s serve. Together. Because the Joker has a ton of MVP seasons left in him. But only so many springs of what-ifs. And only so many summers of doubt.
MINNEAPOLIS — Nuggets coach Michael Malone was involved in a heated interaction with at least one Timberwolves fan near the visiting bench during an NBA playoff game Friday night.
Two fans at Target Center were escorted away from the sideline by security during the fourth quarter of Game 3 between the Nuggets and Timberwolves, but Malone said he didn’t ask for anyone to be removed from the arena.
“He didn’t like my haircut, and I told him that I like my haircut,” Malone joked. “And we just kind of went from there.”
The Nuggets were on their way to a 117-90 blowout when the incident occurred, involving other team support staff members as well as Malone.
The ninth-year Nuggets coach emphasized that the moment wasn’t a reflection of Minnesota’s home crowd in general.
“That happens at times in a hostile environment, and people get a little liquid courage I guess sometimes,” he said. “And they think they can just say whatever they want to anybody. And I’m not allowing that to happen.”
Tensions have been high between both fanbases and the officiating crews so far in the best-of-seven series, which Minnesota leads 2-1. Frustrations during Game 2 at Ball Arena resulted in Jamal Murray throwing multiple objects in the direction of an official. The lack of suspension for Murray resulted in Minnesota’s crowd booing him throughout Game 3.
“Listen man, these fans here are great,” Malone said. “I mean, that was an amazing atmosphere. You live for moments like that and opportunities like that, to go out there and perform when you’ve got 20,000 people screaming at you. But unfortunately there’s always gonna be people that want to get a little bit more involved in the game, and make it personal. And that’s unfortunate.”
Benn launched. He left his feet. Toews’ head snapped like a crash test dummy. Officials declared it a shoulder-on-shoulder crime and suggested we all move on. To paraphrase my best pal Deion Sanders, that’s some bull junk, right there.
For one, even if the Stars winger was aiming for Toews’ shoulder, at least one angle showed him connecting directly with No. 7’s neck. Which, last I checked, is connected to and immediately south of the head.
“I mean, does he catch a piece of his shoulder? Yeah, I guess you could argue that,” Avs coach Jared Bednar, whose team returns to Denver after a road split at American Airlines Center, replied when I asked about the collision. “But the target is high and it’s at his head, and he makes contact with the head. And I’ve seen, many times, guys get called for the head shot and penalty with a lot less than that. But I guess they didn’t think so.”
Two, Benn knew exactly what he was doing. The Stars knew what he was doing. Dallas coach Pete DeBoer, whose Vegas teams delighted in pushing the Avs around in the postseason, knew darn well.
“Benner has been outstanding in this playoff. I thought against Vegas he did and he did (it) smart,” the Stars boss said late Thursday night. “He did it at the right times and he did it clean. But his presence physically is having an impact for us in these playoffs in a real positive way.’’
In the NFL, Benn’s shot is an ejection, a fine, a suspension and a chat with the safety cops.
In the NHL, it’s a “real positive” presence, a strategic wrinkle in a no-holds-barred, merciless bracket.
The refs decided the hit was at Toews’ shoulder blade and not a head shot. Some slo-mo angles showed otherwise, especially as the D-man pinged off another Dallas player like a rag dol. By the letter of the law, it looked (makes air quotes) “clean.”
But barely legal is still barely.
“It is what it is,” Bednar said. “You’ve got to play through it.”
Once a bully knows they can get away with murder in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, there’s only way to stop a killing spree.
Someone’s gotta pick up the Captain’s spine. Someone’s gotta let Benn know that this won’t stand. And neither will he.
Someone’s gotta pick up Landy’s steel. Landy’s soul.
It’s not in Nathan MacKinnon’s game, bless him. It’s not in Cale Makar’s DNA, although a reactive shove after Toews got clocked landed him in an awkward headlock for a few seconds.
“Hopefully there was no intent into the head,” Avs forward Andrew Cogliano said of the Benn ambush.
Then, instead of walking it back, Cogs walked it forward.
“Maybe there was, obviously, a little bit to the head,” Cogliano added. “But, yeah, I don’t know.”
He knew. Everybody did.
“It’s a physical game this time of year,” Bednar said, “but I just can’t understand how that was not a penalty. Even if it isn’t a five (minute major).”
Join the club. Fortunately, Toews returned to the ice, but Benn needs a break. And a lesson. If the league won’t do it, somebody in burgundy and blue needs to apply a little elbow grease.
During the opening seconds of Saturday night’s matchup, the Minnesota star guard was determined to prove his point.
As the shot clock trickled down on Denver’s opening possession, Murray tried to dance around Edwards but couldn’t break loose. Edwards put the clamps on Murray, preventing the Nuggets point guard from moving left before Denver was called for an offensive three second violation.
In Denver’s 106-99 loss to the Timberwolves in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals, Murray went scoreless in the first half. Nuggets head coach Michael Malone revealed after the game that he didn’t practice the entire week while nursing a calf injury — shedding some light on Murray’s rusty start. But that shouldn’t dismiss Minnesota’s defensive effort on Murray that was essential in taking a 1-0 series lead.
Edwards strapping up Murray to start the game was only the beginning. Murray missed three straight shots before getting sent to the bench as Denver faced an 18-4 deficit with 5:12 to go in the first quarter. The Timberwolves did a solid job at switching up coverages on Murray, putting different defenders on him.
Early in the second quarter, it was Minnesota guard Michael Conley Jr.’s turn. As Murray tried to back down the veteran guard, Conley stood firm. Once Murray realized there was no room to get by or take a fadeaway jumper, he passed the ball to forward Aaron Gordon, who air balled a jumper.
On Denver’s next possession, Murray missed a pull-up jumper. Minutes later, his floater was no good. Murray didn’t score a basket on five attempts in the first half, with three missed shots coming from around the free throw line. It was the first time in his career that Murray was held scoreless in a half of a postseason game.
“(The Timberwolves) know what they are doing in the pick-and-roll, and they put a lot of good defenders on Jamal,” Nuggets big man Nikola Jokic said.
In the second half, Murray finally hit his stride. He scored 17 points on 6-for-9 shooting, as he tried to keep up with the Timberwolves’ offensive surge in the third and fourth quarters. His four-point play, coming on stepback 3-pointer against Karl-Anthony Towns, gave the Nuggets an 81-80 advantage in the fourth quarter.
Eventually, Edwards responded by scoring back-to-back baskets to regain the lead. And Murray couldn’t author the same late-game heroics that produced a pair of game-winning shots against the Lakers in the first round.
“(Minnesota) is physical and (makes) you take tough shots,” Jokic said.
Murray, who didn’t speak with reporters after the game, struggled for long stretches of Denver’s first-round series against L.A. He shot 40% from the floor and 29.4% from the 3-point line in five games. But when he dropped 32 points and made the game-winning shot in Game 5 against the Lakers, Murray briefly quelled concerns over his lingering calf injury.
Unfortunately for Denver, that scoring outburst failed to carry over into the first half against Minnesota. And Murray’s 14 shot attempts were the fewest in a postseason game since 2020.
If Denver is to dig itself out of the 1-0 hole it finds itself in after Saturday night, that will likely have to change when Game 2 arrives Monday night.
LOS ANGELES — They showered Darvin Ham with boos as the coach was introduced before opening tip. They bombarded him with more pointed chants before time expired in an otherwise lifeless building.
“Fire Darvin!”
But is this Ham’s fault? D’Angelo Russell’s? The bench’s? All of the above? The Nuggets have infiltrated Los Angeles and sowed instability within an American institution. The Lakers’ superstar foundation is crumbling under the overwhelming pressure of Denver’s starting lineup, which is on the verge of securing a second playoff sweep of Los Angeles in as many seasons.
“To beat a team like that in the first round, who I think if seeded differently, they could make it to the Western Conference Finals or something like that, it’s definitely a challenge,” Peyton Watson said. “But we’re up to it every time, and we love going out there and winning games.”
With every successive win — every identical win — the unthinkable becomes closer to reality. The Nuggets might just own the Lakers.
If they finish the job Saturday in Game 4, they’ll accomplish what not even the Steph Curry-Kevin Durant Warriors could, eliminating LeBron James via sweep two years in a row. Golden State needed five games in 2017.
“They do not have a weakness offensively,” James said. “… Definitely one of the better teams that I’ve played in my career.”
Maybe Denver will need five games in 2024. But if there’s any reason to believe that now, it’s this: The Nuggets are clearly a danger to themselves in this matchup. They are prone to stretches, even entire halves, of complacency against an opponent that can’t hold a lead against them. The ongoing 11-game win streak features six double-digit comebacks.
“I think in this job as a coach, you always have to put on the hat of, ‘We have to fight human nature.’ And how do you do that when you’ve beaten a team 10 times in a row?” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said before Game 3, a 112-105 victory. “… Well, we’ve been down 12, we’ve been down 20. We’ve lost the first quarter of both games. We’ve been down at halftime in both games. That’s cool in your home building when you have that crowd behind you, but now it’s just us.”
Those turned out to be hollow words. Denver spotted Los Angeles an 8-0 lead that grew to 12 before everyone other than Aaron Gordon decided to take Game 3 seriously.
What followed was a 24-point swing between the second and third quarters. Like clockwork.
“To be honest, I think every game is tougher and tougher,” Nikola Jokic said. “You can see, they were up 20 in Denver, in Game 2. They were up 12 today in the first half. But yeah, I think it’s really hard to play against the same team over and over again. You kind of get bored with the style of the play or whatever. So you just need to — especially for us, because we won the last three — just trust what we are doing and don’t get bored with success. Because it can (go) wrong really quick.”
Michael Porter Jr. (1) of the Denver Nuggets knocks down a mid-range jumper over Anthony Davis (3) of the Los Angeles Lakers during the fourth quarter of the Nuggets’ 112-105 win at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Thursday, April 25, 2024. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
The Nuggets are so bored of this matchup that they’ve inadvertently become thrill-seekers, dangling a win in front of the Lakers every night only to pull it out of reach at the last second when Anthony Davis tries to snatch it.
Moments of redemption for the Lakers are short-lived against Denver. Davis’s dominant first half against Jokic in Game 2 was forgotten because he didn’t score in the fourth quarter. Russell’s 23-point bounce-back was superseded by his scoreless Game 3. In the first and third games, he combined to shoot 6 for 27.
The variations of a Los Angeles second unit have failed to take any advantage of Jokic’s rest minutes. Before Game 3, Taurean Prince was the only Lakers bench player who’d scored a point in the series. Nothing from Spencer Dinwiddie. Nothing from Gabe Vincent.
They finally contributed more offense in Game 3 — but the bench was still an inefficient 8 for 19 en route to 19 points.
Davis has been the Lakers’ best player according to the box scores. Los Angeles is plus-25 points with him on the floor in the first halves of these three games — and minus-41 with him on the floor in the second halves.
“This team’s been having the type of run they’ve had against our ball club; I think it’s just a lot of disappointment,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said. “Have to do a better job of staying focused, staying positive throughout it all, because again, you have those disappointment moments, what we call disappointment lags — that disappointment can spill over two, three, four possessions. And you see that someone makes a mistake, drop our heads, and we start jogging back instead of sprinting. But we have to fight through all of that. This is a hell of a team. … They push you to the limit in order to try and beat them.”
Moreover, the Nuggets push themselves to the limit in order to beat the Lakers. Not because they have to; because they can.
DENVER — Nobody needed basketball more this week than Michael Porter Jr.
“I definitely tried to compartmentalize,” Porter Jr. said after the Nuggets Game 1 victory over Los Angeles. “Some bad stuff and some sad stuff happened to my brothers.”
In the span of two days, Michael Porter Jr. watched one younger brother — Jontay — gamble his way to a lifetime ban from the NBA.
Then, his youngest brother — Coban — was sentenced to six years in prison for killing a young woman in a drunk driving crash.
“I wish it was me,” Michael Porter Jr. said testifying at the sentencing hearing on Friday — the day before Denver opened up the playoffs against the Lakers. “As the older brother in the family, I wish it was me. I’ve made plenty of mistakes in my life, I wish it was me not Coban.”
Michael Porter Jr. missed practice to be at that hearing, but the entire team made sure he knew that his family was on their hearts.
“Each one of them texted me separately and told me they got my back and if I needed anything they got me,” Michael Porter Jr. said. “To have these guys understand why I missed practice and have my back has been big for me.”
After all of that, the hardwood floor at Ball Arena proved to be a sanctuary for MPJ on Saturday night.
“That’s why basketball is such a beautiful thing,” Nikola Jokic said after watching Michael Porter Jr. score 19 points and help Denver claim a 1-0 series lead over Los Angeles. “You don’t think about [anything] but what’s going on on the floor.”
“There’s so much going on for Michael Porter Jr. and his family,” Nuggets head coach Michael Malone said. “This allows him to get back to doing something not only that he loves but that he does very well.”
MPJ, along with the rest of the Nuggets, got off to a slow start in Game 1. It’s hard to believe that had nothing to do with the pain inevitably weighing on his heart.
“We’re human, we carry our emotions and the things that go on off the court onto the court,” Michael Porter Jr. said. “I’m mentally tough, I’ve been though a lot my whole career so it was just another one of those things that I had to play through.”
Leaning on perseverance and championship experience, MPJ and the team as a whole found a rhythm in the second half and imposed their will on the Lakers in what turned out to be a comfortable victory.
“For his mindset to be where it is, I applaud him,” Kentavious Caldwell-Pope said of Porter Jr. “We’re going to keep him, as a brother, we’re going to keep him straight.”
The mental strength displayed by Michael Porter Jr. is nothing short of Herculean.
He’s battled back surgeries, physical and mental pain — now, sorrow and scandal among his siblings.
During these dark moments, Michael Porter Jr. leans on faith and family to provide warmth.
“I’ve got 15, 16 more brothers in [the locker room],” Porter Jr. said. “I knew I had to be here for them and come in here and do my job.”
“Of course family is the first thing but we are some kind of family too,” Jokic said. “Hopefully he’s going to find peace and he’s going to be in a good spot mentally.”
Winning won’t cure everything, but it works as a soothing balm for now.
While the tempest rages around Porter Jr., throwing himself into work — at this time of year — may be a championship decision.
Michael Porter Jr. embraces Nuggets brotherhood amid family sorrow
The Follow Up
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MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The tarp is being removed from the pool for the first time this year at the Jokic household.
“We have good weather,” Nikola Jokic said Sunday afternoon in Memphis, his mind already back in Denver enough to know the local forecast. “So I’m going to go in my swimming pool. … Probably get some treatment. Relax a little bit.”
The Nuggets have five nights off before they play again, in Game 1 of the Western Conference playoffs Saturday at Ball Arena. They have two full days before they’ll know their first-round opponent — either the Los Angeles Lakers or New Orleans Pelicans.
They intend to enjoy the brief moment of stillness while they can. Because they hope to enjoy what happens next even more.
“I think we all kind of were tired of the regular season,” Michael Porter Jr. said.
Common side-effect of winning a championship. The first 82 games suddenly don’t feel as important. The playoffs can’t arrive soon enough. Champions become adrenaline junkies, living for the pressure and excitement. After a rollicking win over the Timberwolves last Wednesday, Nuggets players sat in the locker room and fantasized about the crowd noise of a playoff environment, the extra oomph of player introductions. Ball Arena had just given them an early taste of it.
Maybe that’s why they fell apart two nights later in San Antonio. Second-half blowout. Lottery team. Lethargic crowd. Minds in the future. The Nuggets lost focus, lost a 23-point lead and lost their stranglehold on the No. 1 seed in the West.
The regular-season finale in Memphis was an opportunity seized to salvage something out of their slip to third place in the standings. Minnesota’s loss to Phoenix handed the No. 2 seed back to Denver (57-25), an extra series with that coveted home-court advantage and a different path through the playoffs. Lemons to lemonade.
“In the second round, we’ll get another round of home-court, and then the only way we wouldn’t get the Western Conference Finals home-court is if OKC makes it all the way,” Porter said. “Which they very well could. So definitely some benefits to being the second seed.”
“We’ll see in a couple months how it played out for us,” Reggie Jackson said. “Still a tough loss in San Antonio, just because we completely controlled our own destiny. But we still control our destiny. It’s just about playing our best ball at the right time.”
First, a few days to breathe. The afternoon game time Sunday allowed the Nuggets to fly home from Memphis immediately after the game and have most of the evening to relax. Monday is also a “black-out day,” with nobody going to the team facility or working.
“Let everybody stay home, get some rest, be with your families, whatever it is you need to do,” coach Michael Malone said. “And then obviously on Tuesday, maybe have a light player development type of a day. And may get together as a team to watch that game on Tuesday night.”
That’s the burning question now. Who would the Nuggets rather play in the first round? The seventh-seeded Pelicans, a roster that might end up without an All-NBA selection and a core with minimal playoff experience? Or the eighth-seeded Lakers, a franchise that strikes fear into everybody but a current iteration that has lost eight consecutive games to Denver? It’s a fresh matchup or a grudge match.
“I think it’s pretty even throughout,” Porter said. “New Orleans presents a lot of challenges. Especially with (Brandon Ingram) being back. But the Lakers are a very good team as well. We may have swept them last year (in the Western Conference), but it was a battle every game. I think they ran every game, and then it came down to the last two or three minutes where we kind of pulled away. So it may have looked like we dominated, but that was a very good matchup last year, so we’re taking everyone serious.”
Porter, despite Denver’s scoreboard-watching Sunday, wanted to be clear: “We don’t have a preferred opponent.”
Meanwhile, Malone wasn’t focused on the “who” so much as the “when.”
“You find out a lot sooner than you did as a 1-seed,” he said. “So that helps.”
Indeed, the Nuggets will have more time to scout one specific opponent than they did last year as the top seed, which doesn’t find out its adversary until Friday at the conclusion of the Play-In Tournament. The real work starts Wednesday for Denver. Even that rumored gathering for the Lakers-Pelicans game Tuesday night would be more of a social event than a work function.
“We’ll probably get together and watch it and just try to relax at the same time,” Jackson said. “Try to do a little bit of scouting, but just trying to do a little bit of hanging out. Build some comradery and just relax a little bit.”
The situation in New Orleans will be intriguing. The Lakers were already there Sunday for Game 82. Their 124-108 rout vaulted them to the No. 8 position and knocked the Pelicans from No. 6 to No. 7 … all for the two teams to play again in the same arena 48 hours later. The Lakers don’t even have to fly home to Los Angeles and back.
The leading scorer for one of these teams has never played a playoff game in his career. The leading scorer for the other has played 282. One team has nightmarish depth. The other is overwhelmingly dependent on two stars likely bound for All-NBA recognition. One finished the regular season ranked No. 6 in the NBA in net rating (Denver was fourth). The other finished 19th … but it’s the Lakers.
Take your pick. Jokic won’t.
“I think every team is really good in the West,” he told The Denver Post when asked about the Nuggets’ place in the finalized bracket. “So it really doesn’t matter. I think what we need to focus on is us. Even in life, you’re just trying to focus on yourself. Not on everybody else.”
SAN ANTONIO — To hold serve at the top of the Western Conference standings, the Nuggets had to weather one last Wemby storm.
They couldn’t.
In what might have been the last game of Victor Wembanyama’s Rookie of the Year-destined season, the Nuggets kept him flustered for one half before he turned into a flamethrower in the other. Denver couldn’t survive the surge, losing their seeding on a Devonte’ Graham transition floater with 0.9 seconds remaining for a 121-120 defeat Friday night at Frost Bank Center. It was Denver’s only deficit of the second half, right after Nikola Jokic missed an open foul line jumper.
“We had our chances,” Jokic said. “I missed an open look on the last shot. It’s something that I need to make. I missed, and they had a fast break.”
The Spurs scored 71 points in the second half.
“We didn’t defend at all,” coach Michael Malone said. “… The very few times they did miss in the fourth quarter, we gave up eight offensive rebounds for 13 points. So give San Antonio a ton of credit. They stayed with it. We were up by 23 at one point, and just, too many blow-bys, too many 3s, too many leaving our feet on shot fakes. Just a lot of things that I would say did not go our way down the stretch.”
The Nuggets (56-25) will now finish in third place via a three-way tiebreaker if Denver, Minnesota and Oklahoma City each win their finales Sunday. The Nuggets play in Memphis.
To get to this point, a 23-point lead in the third quarter had to be sliced to six, setting up a frantic fourth in which the clutch Nuggets finally wilted against the worst team in the West. It was 81-60 with 8:16 remaining in the third frame. Then Wembanyama buried a pull-up three. During a 26-9 Spurs run over four minutes and change, he scored 17 of 19 San Antonio points, including a trio of consecutive 3-pointers. The third was enough to finally warrant an aggravated Malone timeout. Reggie Jackson entered and turned it over on an eight-second violation.
Malone would take one more rage timeout in the quarter. The Nuggets responded to that one better, scoring the last six of the period. Role players were mostly solid in Jokic’s rest minutes, but the starters were lackadaisical on defense and missed open shots. Jamal Murray was Denver’s most consistent source of offense throughout the game, scoring 35 on 5-of-11 shooting beyond the arc. Jokic scored 14 in the first quarter and eight the rest of the game.
“If you remember last year, we did a kind of similar thing,” Jokic said. “We lost to a couple teams (at the end of the regular season; three consecutive on the road). So it seems like we didn’t learn our lesson. But maybe the year needs to be repeated, the same thing happens and hopefully we’re gonna win a championship again.”
San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama (1) shoots over Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic (15) during the second half of an NBA basketball game in San Antonio, Friday, April 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Before the opening tip, Malone made an astute point about facing the lowly Spurs right after surviving Minnesota on Wednesday for arguably the defining win of Denver’s regular season. “Do you kind of let go of the rope a little bit and say, ‘OK, San Antonio’s got eight guys out with injuries?’” he pondered. “Well, they have one guy playing.”
It went without saying which player Malone was referring to. It wasn’t Sandro Mamukelashvili, whose nine first-quarter points gave San Antonio the edge despite 14 from Jokic on perfect shooting. In a classic Jokic half, he didn’t attempt a shot in the entire second quarter, which the Nuggets won by 19. They thrived by bottling up Wembanyama, who went into the break with 15 points on 14 shots, four turnovers and his first career yapping-related technical foul.
Aaron Gordon defended him well and built up frustration. Before a Spurs baseline out-of-bounds play, the two got tangled up and Wembanyama fell. With Gordon standing over him, no foul was caused. Gordon absorbed a Wembanyama push-off in the post after the ensuing inbound and the possession ended in a turnover. By the end of the half, the rookie was visibly riled up, due for a big half.
“I think we just took our foot off the gas in terms of intensity,” Peyton Watson said. “I feel like we felt like we were gonna win no matter what and there was no possible way that we could lose this game, which I don’t understand.”
Christian Braun didn’t have time immediately to examine every single notification on his phone, but he did notice a text from his mom before he spoke to reporters.
What did she say?
“Lord knows,” Braun said solemnly. “I probably can’t say it in here.”
Reactions were pouring in after his left-handed dunk over three-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert on Wednesday night. The poster gave the Nuggets (56-24) a 12-point lead with 3:21 remaining in an eventual 116-107 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. It upset the previously established order of the Western Conference standings with two games to go. It punctuated a 33-8 season at Ball Arena for the defending champions.
Next time they play in this building, it’ll be Game 1 of a first-round playoff series (perhaps as the No. 1 seed, if they can hold serve this weekend). The players thanked their 41st sellout crowd in as many games by sticking around to throw souvenir basketballs into the stands. Nobody wanted to leave.
“We’re on a high right now,” coach Michael Malone said, directing attention toward the two games Denver still needs to win to clinch home-court advantage in the Western Conference playoffs.
Braun’s showstopper was a tribute to cathartic memories at Ball Arena — the crowd explosions that frequently defined Denver’s 16-4 run to the 2023 title — and a preview of more to come. He was pushing the tempo after a Minnesota miss, driving toward Gobert in transition from the left wing. Peyton Watson, his 2022 draft-mate, was slashing backside toward the rim. Gobert slid back to deny a lob to Watson, seemingly giving Braun a path toward the layup. Then the Minnesota center left his feet, trying to spring back at Braun.
“I was just telling somebody in the locker room, a lot of the credit goes to P-Wat too, because I think Rudy knew that P-Wat is a high flyer running behind him,” Braun said. “So he was stunting, falling, trying to play both. Which is what you’re supposed to do, obviously, in transition. He was just caught between two guys that attack the rim pretty hard. … Most of the time, he gets those blocks.”
Before Gobert could meet him at the rim, Braun partially switched the ball to his left hand in mid-air and navigated around the attempted block.
“Everybody on the team knows I like to dunk with my left land,” he said. “I don’t usually try it in the fourth quarter of a big game like that, but I didn’t want to go up with a layup against the best defensive player in the league. You’ve gotta attack him strong. I don’t know. I didn’t really plan it.”
Christian Braun (0) of the Denver Nuggets dunks on Rudy Gobert (27) of the Minnesota Timberwolves during the fourth quarter of the Nuggets’ 116-107 win at Ball Arena in Denver on Wednesday, April 10, 2024. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
Braun flexed. The entire bench flailed with delight. Play continued. Anthony Edwards missed a quick chance at the other end — part of a scoreless fourth quarter for him — and Michael Porter Jr. carried the rebound through traffic. There was Braun at the backdoor, cutting for a lob.
Two dunks in 21 seconds for the Nuggets’ sixth man, and it was game over.
“Probably my best sequence in the NBA yet,” Braun said.
“Some of the dunks that were being performed and finished and completed — Christian Braun’s left-handed dunk, I’ll be honest, there were a few where I was telling them, ‘Hey, slow up, slow up, let’s work the clock,’” Malone said. “It was a dunk show for a bit.”
After Braun’s consecutive slams, Watson got in on the action by swatting a jumper for his career-high sixth block of the game then chasing down Jamal Murray’s long outlet pass for a fast-break hammer. Braun, trailing the play, jumped with Watson out of sheer excitement.
That either of them would be on the floor late in the fourth quarter to begin with was a testament to the playoff blueprint both had followed to near-perfection throughout the game. Watson’s blocks spoke for themselves. Braun’s defense was equally valuable as he challenged ball-handlers at the point of attack, contained Edwards several times and even made life difficult for Naz Reid on a post-up. Edwards had gotten Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in foul trouble during the third quarter, leaving the bench players to fend and defend for themselves.
Even with just two combined points through three quarters, Braun and Watson earned their place in the closing lineup.
“(Malone) could have subbed us out for the guys that normally finish the game, but he trusted me and (Watson), trusted our defense, trusted us to get it done,” Braun said. “Those plays don’t happen if we come out earlier, if we check out at our usual time.”
Ten months ago, a bench player scored the go-ahead basket that eventually clinched the Nuggets’ first championship in franchise history. Life without Bruce Brown has been the story of this regular season. What more fitting way to end it for the fans than with an overwhelming demonstration of depth?
“That’s ESPN top-10,” Nuggets resident dunk aficionado Aaron Gordon said. “Top-two. Could be two or one.”
To his disappointment, Braun’s poster turned out to be No. 8 on the evening program of SportsCenter. The Nuggets settled for the No. 1 that mattered more.
It’s clear which of the Nuggets’ four remaining games is the most consequential, but what precedes it might be the dictionary definition of a trap game.
There’s even a precedent. Ninth-year coach Michael Malone had that on his mind as he arrived at Ball Arena for practice Monday morning, causing him to ask special assistant to the head coach Andrew Munson for evidence.
“I knew that we had struggled in Salt Lake City,” Malone said. He didn’t realize just how bad his coaching record was, though.
Munson informed him that Denver has lost six consecutive road games against the Utah Jazz entering their matchup Tuesday. Sounded about right to Malone. “But…” Munson continued, catching Malone off guard — “I’m like oh, there’s a ‘but’ to this?” — the Nuggets are also 1-14 in Salt Lake during Malone’s tenure.
Bulletin board material: obtained.
Denver’s excursion to face Utah (29-49) is the forgettable first half of a critical back-to-back that will help shape the final seeding of the Western Conference playoffs. The second half is back home against Minnesota in a showdown that could finally determine the No. 1 seed once and for all. With four games to go and the entire league idle Monday, the Nuggets (54-24) know this much: They will automatically clinch that top seed if they win out. But if they lose to the Timberwolves, with whom they’re currently tied, they’ll all but forfeit the race. Minnesota would have to lose two of its other three remaining games, while Denver would have to win all three. And Oklahoma City would have to lose at least one more.
Needless to say, human nature might be to disregard that irksome round-trip flight to Utah, where a lottery team awaits.
“My most important message to our group today was, everybody’s talking about Wednesday night; I don’t care about Wednesday night,” Malone said. “Because if we don’t handle our business tomorrow night, that takes away from the importance of Wednesday.”
So Malone quizzed likely MVP winner Nikola Jokic about the number of games they’ve won together at Delta Center. The Nuggets center guessed three. “I wish it was three,” Malone responded.
He had one-on-one discussions with a number of Denver’s players Monday, making sure everyone was on the same page entering the last week of the regular season. As of about noon, Malone believed the entire roster would be making the trip, “and hopefully they’re all available to play tomorrow night.” That includes Jamal Murray, who returned Saturday after a seven-game absence, and Aaron Gordon, who missed the last win with a foot injury.
Despite various bumps and bruises, the Nuggets are feeling good overall about their collective physical state with the playoffs looming.
It’s their mental state that has Malone worried. And the apparently cursed state that is Utah.
“I think it’s jet lag,” he deadpanned. “That’s a really long flight. And we don’t really acclimate to the altitude very well.”
KCP’s off day
One of those bumps is the swollen and distorted-looking right pinky finger of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who dislocated it during a game in February. Since then, he’s been deciding during his pregame shooting routine whether he wants to tape up the finger or leave it alone that night.
Whatever he’s doing is working — he’s shooting 47.6% from 3-point range in 22 games since the All-Star break — but he says the injury “won’t heal up until the summertime.”
With Sunday and Monday off, the Nuggets finally had two days without a game for the first time in more than a month. “Oh, it’s lit,” Peyton Watson said after being informed of that after Denver’s win Saturday. Upon subsequently learning about the back-to-back, he shook his head and said, “I’ve gotta start looking at the schedule.”
Caldwell-Pope was a little better prepared than Watson. One of his three sons celebrated his seventh birthday with a LEGO-themed party Sunday, but his seven-month-old daughter stole the spotlight at the event by saying her first word (“daddy”). Caldwell-Pope says his sleep hasn’t been jeopardized this season by the newborn, his fourth child.
“She’s a quiet baby,” he said. “She doesn’t cry as much. She just likes to chill. She’s very observant. Just likes looking at people.”
