DENVER — There was a lot to discuss after the Denver Nuggets’ dramatic win over the Oklahoma City Thunder on national TV Thursday.
Gary Harris’ game-winning shot capped one of the wildest games of the NBA season. Harris (25 points), Nikola Jokic (29 points, 13 rebounds, 14 assists) and Jamal Muray (33 points, five assists) all had monster performances. So did Paul George, who poured in 43 points on 26 shots, and Russell Westbrook, who scored 20 and handed out 21 assists, for Oklahoma City.
What got swept under the rug in the aftermath of all that was the fact that Michael Malone won his 100th game as head coach of the Denver Nuggets.
Malone was hired in the summer of 2015 to take over. The Nuggets went 33-49 in his first year. In year two, they improved to 40-42 and narrowly missed the playoffs. This season, despite losing Paul Millsap to a wrist injury in November, the Nuggets are 27-25 — clinging to a one-game lead as the eighth seed in the West.
Prior to Saturday’s game against the Golden State Warriors (7 p.m., Altitude), Malone took a moment to reflect on his tenure as Nuggets head coach. After some early struggles, which were expected in the rebuild effort, Malone said he likes the direction his team is headed in and hopes to be a part of whatever the organization does in the years to come.
“Honestly, 100 wins doesn’t mean much. I’m more worried about the big picture, the direction we’re heading in,” he said. “That’s what excites me. It’s not about me. I mean that seriously. When you have a locker room filled with players who have genuinely bought in, who come to work every day with the right attitude and mindset, I love where we’re headed. And I hope to be here to see this team kind of come together. If you think about what we potentially have in the making, I’d love to be here to see that through because of who we are, the talent that we have and how much joy I get in working with them.
“Three years, when I first got here, I was taking over a team that had not been playing well. So you come in here and try to instill a culture and change things around. I think we’ve done that in three years. You feel unfortunate because I think if Paul Millsap stays healthy, we’re not fighting for our lives to be the eighth seed. I think we’re potentially playing for home-court advantage in the first round. But it is what it is. You have to adapt and you have to adjust.
“But 100 wins, that’s great. But they’re the guys who win the games. Not me. I try to put them in the best position to win. But most importantly, when I reflect on this, I love where we’re at. I look at where we’ve come from. And most importantly, I love the direction of we’re headed. And that’s a credit to Josh Kroenke, that’s a credit to Tim Connelly, and that’s credit to my coaching staff and all the players that we have.”
Since Millsap got hurt on Nov. 19 in Los Angeles, the Nuggets have gone 11-11. Malone has had to lean heavily on players who are 23 years old and younger even more than expected in Millsap’s absence. Gary Harris, 23, Jamal Murray, 20, Nikola Jokic, 22, and Trey Lyles, 22, rank a respective first, second, third and fourth in points per game on the Nuggets from Nov. 20 on. All four of those players have made significant strides under Malone’s watch.
Malone’s contract with Denver runs through the 2018-19 season, meaning he has one season left on his deal after this one. He has a 100-116 record as the Nuggets’ head coach.
