Everything was lined up for the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday night.
If the Minnesota Timberwolves lost to the Washington Wizards and the Nuggets were able to beat the San Antonio Spurs at Mile High City with Dejuonte Murray, they would officially secure a top-six seed in the Western Conference and an automatic bid to the playoffs. ,
The first dominoes fell as the Timberwolves lost 132–114 to the Washington Wizards. All of a sudden the Nuggets had to beat the bad Spurs at home. Seems simple enough doesn't it?
Wrong. The Nuggets instead fell to the Spurs 116-97, opening the door for Denver to enter the play-in tournament.
"We got lucky when we went to Washington and beat Minnesota," said Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone. "We missed a golden opportunity," he said. I don't think we had the expected focus, determination, urgency, desperation, or whatever adjective you want to use. I just didn't think we had it tonight. And just the lack of discipline - the things we've been working on since September and have been bugging us throughout the year and they've been bothering us constantly - that's probably one of the more frustrating things for me. Too many breakdowns in a big game and they made us pay for it.
"Give San Antonio credit. They worked harder than us for 48 minutes.
This was not the polarizing opinion shared by Malone. The rest of the team clearly felt the same way and when asked postgame about losses to both Nikola Jokic and Aaron Gordon, they megaphoned Malone's comments.
“They beat us. They were the better team today,” said Nikola Jokic, contemplating defeat after putting up another incredible stat-stuffing performance with 41 points, 17 rebounds and four assists. “Did we have a chance? Yes, in terms of records or whatever, but they work hard and they beat us today. I don't want to say that we are better than them, but we had a good chance."
"It's a bad loss for us," Aaron Gordon said after scoring 18 points and 13 rebounds of his own in Denver's loss at the hands of Spurs. “We did not take advantage of the opportunity that was presented to us and it is disappointing. But we know we have two games left and our focus is now on Memphis.
When taking a closer look at what went wrong for the nuggets, this was it; Especially bad defensive play. Denver has the fourth-worst defensive rating in the league in the last 10 games, which has been a major contributor to their 5-5 record. In their last 10 games, the Nuggets are allowing an incomprehensible 120.6 defensive rating. The only teams worse than Denver in that period are the Portland Trail Blazers, Los Angeles Lakers, and Indiana Pacers; All of which are mathematically out of playoff contention.
So what's going so wrong to defend Denver?
"My friend, I really don't know," Jokic said. "It's the 80th match. I don't know. Maybe just to play harder.
"We didn't control the game. We didn't defend at all. ,
When Gordon was asked the same question, he highlighted a possible improvement that could be implemented immediately.
"I think we just need to communicate a little better," Gordon explained. "I felt like we were quiet on defense tonight. Communication is a very, very big part of defense."
In Gordon's opinion, Denver's conflict communication is an easy solution because it all falls on one person; Gordon himself. After losing to San Antonio, Gordon took most of the defensive fault.
"It's on me. He's on me," repeated Gordon. "I have to be the head of this defense. I have to be like the captain of defence. I just need to talk and make sure I am telling where I am, what I am doing and what needs to happen and that there is a constant line of communication with all the other players on the floor. ,
Still, there's more to the Nuggets than just a lack of execution and effort on defense.
The biggest issue that is becoming more and more apparent is Jokic's level of exhaustion after leading the Nuggets to 47 wins, putting up numbers like MVP on a game-by-game basis.
"He's tired," Malone said frankly. “He is carrying a team for 80 matches and I cannot take him out of the game. So you have to go right back to him when he has gas problems. I went back to him tonight around 9:30 and he told me 'already?' looked like.
This is far from surprising. With both Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. almost missing out on the entire season so far, Jokic has to bear the burden of keeping the Nuggets afloat. Sure, Gordon has been brilliant throughout the season and Will Barton III, Monte Morris, Bones Hyland and others have stepped up in moments, but make no mistake; Without Jokic, the Nuggets would have been one of the worst teams in the league this season. The responsibility he has discharged has taken his toll.
"I think he's tired because that guy leads the league in triple-doubles, double-doubles, par, I can go on and on," Malone said. "He's top-10 in every category, he's going to be the only player in NBA history to average 25 (points), 13 (rebounds), and 6 (assists), so he's tired.
"He would never say that, but he is and should be because of everything he has done for us."
Despite what works against him, the Nuggets' Locker Room remains confident in his ability to come back to be the best version of himself. They know what it takes to win in the playoffs and Denver still has arguably the greatest basketball player on earth on their team. If they can dial in their execution, this roster believes they can beat anyone.
"We are there. We are there. We are not looking to the future to see how we can be as a team in two weeks, three weeks or four weeks. No, we are there," Gordon reiterated. “When we come together and pay attention to details, we are as good as any team in the league. We are where we should be. We just need to make sure we're putting things together and paying attention to details; playing together."
The reason for Gordon's confidence comes down to an extremely simple - almost reductive - fact.
“Oh yes. We got players of the ball, man,” said Gordon. “We got players of the ball, we got confident shot makers, we got facilitators, we got all kinds of players who just love the game and Have passion for the game. So when you bring it together, we can beat anyone."
It remains to be seen whether the Nuggets have enough talent to win multiple playoff series this season—potentially without Murray or Porter—but that locker room feels they belong and last a few years. Anyone who's watched the Nuggets in season knows how well Denver thrives when their backs are against the wall.
That's why Malone isn't overreacting to this defeat and still believes the Nuggets will find it within themselves to make the playoffs and make noise once they get there.
"I'm pretty loyal. We have 47 wins. It's a tough loss, but you don't overreact in an 80's game," Malone said. I think attacking Memphis is important as our chance of securing a playoff spot."
"Lucky for us, we still control our destiny. We don't need to scoreboard the clock or take out the beads of the rosary. We control our destiny."