Michael Malone hasn’t had much time to take a step back and reflect on his team’s road to the top of the Western Conference amidst the Nuggets’ hectic January, where Denver played 16 games in 30 days.
But as a golden bronze saxophone belted out the smooth tones of the national anthem ahead of the nationally televised matchup between the Nuggets and Rockets, Malone found that moment of peace.
“I think you have to along the way stop and appreciate what we’ve done. It’s a fine line because I’m not saying stop and celebrate and think we’ve arrived. Because we haven’t. We still have so much to do.
“But if you don’t enjoy the victories, if you don’t enjoy the moments, what are you doing it for? Before the game, the national anthem and the crowd. I was just thinking to myself, ‘Year one to now, what we’ve built from the ground up. That’s special.'”
Denver’s special season continued against the Houston Rockets — a team the Nuggets had lost to nine-straight times dating back to Oct. 25, 2015. Without two starters — Jamal Murray and Gary Harris — Denver toppled Houston 136-112.
The red devil is off Denver’s back.
“Yeah, we knew it. We just wanted to win bad,” Will Barton told BSN Denver when asked about Denver’s losing streak to James Harden’s bunch. “We just wanted to end that streak.”
Denver got contributions from everyone up and down its roster in Friday’s thriller that was played at the frenetic pace of an EDM light show, not an early-February regular season matchup. Torrey Craig, who was playing basketball on Australia’s Gold Coast the last time Denver toppled Houston, pieced together one of the better games of his career, finishing with 22 points, on 8-11 shooting in 34 minutes. Craig was a plus-20 in the 34 minutes he spent shadowing Harden, who Denver held to 30 points on 9-21 shooting. In his third career start, Monte Morris tallied 18 points, six rebounds and eight assists while checking nine-time All-Star Chris Paul, who’s 10 years his senior.
Malik Beasley, who was a Freshman at Florida State the last time the Nuggets beat Harden, went shot-for-shot with Harden, the leader in the clubhouse for the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award, finishing with a career-high 35 points on 12-17 shooting. Beasley, who’s shooting 42 percent from three-point range this season, drilled five of his nine triples.
Denver (36-15) has now beaten every team in the Western Conference this season.
“It just shows that we’re a great team,” Beasley said. “And we believe we’re the best team in the league.”
The nine-straight losses to Houston weighed heavily on the Nuggets’ psyches in the lead-up to Saturday’s matchup. Mentally, the Rockets held an edge over the Nuggets, one that Denver was adamant about tilting back in its direction. Malone and his staff convened at 6 a.m. sharp Thursday, just hours after arriving back in Denver from New Orleans straight off a two-game road trip, to install their game plan for the Rockets.
With Houston center Clint Capela sidelined, the Nuggets knew they would be able to play through Nikola Jokic in the post, who for most of the game was defended by the undersized Kenneth Faried and P.J. Tucker. Jokic, who took in Friday’s All-Star announcement alongside his two older brothers, girlfriend and a small contingent of Nuggets staffers that included Nuggets president of basketball operations Tim Connelly at his downtown Denver apartment, answered the call by putting on one of the better performances of his season.
Jokic finished with 31 points, 13 rebounds and 9 assists, pleasing the likes of Serbian natives Igor Stanic, Nikola Sulic and Nenad Kulic, three mid-20-year-olds who made the trek from Telluride, Colorado, for the game. The trio waved their red, blue, white and gold Serbian flag proudly from seats right behind the Nuggets’ bench as they watched their countryman and now All-Star put on a show in front of a sold-out crowd.
“The fans are really wild right now,” Jokic said. “It’s a full arena, so that’s something that really keeps us moving. I’m really thankful for them coming, so…whew, I’m tired.”
Against Houston, Jokic played 31 minutes, 16 of which came in a frenzied first half where Denver put 83 points on the scoreboard — the fifth-most the Nuggets have scored in a half in franchise history. Denver led by 12 points at the break and expanded its lead to 20 late in the third quarter. Once Houston crept back to within 14 points with under six minutes to go in the fourth, Jokic sauntered to the scorer’s table, got one last word of advice from Malone, checked into the game and proceeded to score six-straight points, the final two of which came from the charity stripe as the big man was showered with M.V.P. chants.
The final buzzer sounded with the game ball in Jokic’s hands. A fitting end to what’s been a week of a lifetime for the Nuggets 23-year-old franchise cornerstone.
Prior to Friday’s tip, Mason Plumlee gathered his troops during one of Denver’s final pregame huddles and stressed to his teammates that they needed to finally crack the Houston code, one that had eluded them for the last three seasons.
“We’ve beaten all comers. We’re not scared of anybody,” Malone said. “If we play them in the playoffs, now we know we’ve beaten this team. We know what it takes to beat them.”
A few hours later the Nuggets slayed another Western Conference giant. Now, they want more.
“They can’t win it every year. Whoever you think been winning the last couple of years, that’s who I’m talking about,” Barton told BSN Denver, looking past the Rockets to the back-to-back champs. “Who better to stop them than us?”
