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There’s only one word to describe what it was like at ring night at Ball Arena: Perfection.
The ring ceremony? Perfect.
The banner raising? Perfect.
Michael Malone and Mr. Nugget Aaron Gordon’s pregame remarks to a sold-out crowd? Perfect.
The Nuggets’ convincing 119-107 opening night win over the Lakers? Again, it was perfect.
I’ll never forget being in the building on Tuesday. It was a Pantheon night in Denver sports history. And the Nuggets looked the part.
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“I think it’s a really nice moment in life,” Nikola Jokic said.
Everything that we thought we knew about this team during the lead-up to this season looked true. The Nuggets ran with a swagger. They played confident, composed basketball. They knew they were winning that game before it started.
They moved like champions.
What championship hangover? What complacency? Satisfied with one championship? The Nuggets look ready to march to a second.
“There’s no statement wins in the first game of the season,” Malone said. “We’re not going to make too much of it.”
Fine. I will.
If you saw Jokic pregame, sparkling ring finger and all, staring up into the rafters as the Nuggets’ championship banner rose, you knew what this team was about to do. And you know what they’re about to do this season.
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This is a superstar and a roster that’s starving for more. The Nuggets won one, and now they want another. They experienced that feeling once, and now they need more of it.
“Thank you for coming out tonight and supporting us all season long, on our road to repeat,” Gordon said pregame.
I don’t think the Nuggets just want to win another championship. I think they’re expecting to. That’s the vibe I got from them throughout Tuesday’s opener.
Anthony Davis began the first quarter guarding Jokic. In a near repeat performance from Game 1 of last year’s Western Conference Finals, Davis got switched off of the reigning Finals MVP before halftime. I think that’s when you knew it was curtains.
Jokic toyed with Davis inside. He scored 19 points in the first half. He tallied seven points and five assists in the fourth quarter. By the end of the night, Jokic had his warmups on and was resting on the bench. His final line read 29 points, 13 rebounds, 11 assists, 1 steal, and 1 block.
After Davis scored 17 points in the first half, Jokic and the Nuggets held him scoreless across the third and fourth quarters.
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“AD’s a really talented player,” Jokic said. “It’s hard when you play one against two. I’ve got to thank my teammates.”
In a victorious postgame locker room, Malone proudly walked around wearing his championship ring. At one point he stopped at DeAndre Jordan’s stall where the veteran showed his coach all the features of the 16-carat stunner. Josh Kroenke, also wearing his ring, made an appearance in the locker room too.
The vibes? They were immaculate.
Of course, this season won’t be all smooth sailing. The Nuggets still have to figure out their bench, which was fine but still shaky at times against the Lakers.
After a Lakers’ run against a lineup that featured some of the Nuggets’ second unit and trimmed Denver’s lead to four points with 8:49 remaining in regulation, Malone made a substitution that effectively ended the game.
“I wanted to get our horse back in there,” he said.
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Jokic re-entered a couple of minutes earlier than normal. He then scored or assisted on eight of the Nuggets’ last 11 baskets of the game.
The Nuggets outscored the Lakers 25-17 in the fourth quarter. They forced the Lakers into four turnovers in the period. They calmly closed out a Lakers team that had loudly made it known they wanted to ruin their ring night.
It was a clinic.
It was…perfect.
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