Reinvigorated Paul Millsap playing best basketball of season as Nuggets enter stretch run

Four nuggets for the four wins the Nuggets have strung together on opposite sides of the All-Star break. They beat the Clippers 123-96 on Sunday at Pepsi Center.

1. Paul Millsap’s Core 4 training facility in Atlanta is equipped with three basketball courts, a hot tub, cold tub, sauna, weight room and track. During the All-Star break, Millsap headed east and worked out at the state-of-the-art, 44,000 square-foot behemoth. Millsap returned to Denver looking so fresh, his head coach wondered if the ways Millsap recuperated involved mysticism.

“Paul has found the Fountain of Youth or something,” Michael Malone said. “He’s playing like a young Paul Millsap. He’s flying around.”

Millsap scored 21 points and hauled in 16 rebounds in Denver’s wire-to-wire win over L.A. He also had three steals, two blocks and, according to Denver’s internal tracking data, 18 shot contests. The extra gear Millsap accessed was apparent in the fourth quarter when he closed down a passing lane, got a hand on the basketball and finished with a dunk on the other end.

“I feel great,” said Millsap, who missed 11 games before the All-Star break with a broken toe and later a tweaked ankle. “I’m fully healthy. That has a little to do with it. And it’s the stretch run. Everything we’ve got, we’ve got to put on the line out there.”

Millsap has strung together three impressive performances. He’s averaging 21 points per game on 55.8 percent shooting, 14 rebounds and 2.7 steals since Denver’s Feb. 13 win over Sacramento. Denver has outscored opponents by 49 points in his 95 minutes on the floor.

Millsap’s broken toe Dec. 7 coincided with a defensive slide. The Nuggets were allowing 104.4 points per 100 possessions up to that point, which was the fifth-best mark in the league at the time. Eventually, they fell out of the top 10 entirely. With Millsap and Gary Harris back, the Nuggets are hoping to regain the stinginess they played with at the beginning of the season.

“That’s the main thing for us,” Millsap said. “We know we can score. We’ve just got to get stops.”

2. Like Millsap, the All-Star break seemed to come out at a good time for Harris. Denver’s starting shooting guard missed seven games earlier this month with a right adductor strain. He looked good in his return against Dallas on Friday, and Sunday’s win over the Clippers was another step in the right direction. Harris scored 14 points in 22 minutes. His deflection and tip pass to Monte Morris helped Denver extend its lead to 18 in the third quarter.

“His defense sets the tone for a lot of things we do,” Millsap said. “The way he fights over screens and chases guys. The way he gets deflections. The way he contests shots. Down the line, guys follow it.”

Malone has compared Millsap and Harris before. They play different positions, but both have well-rounded games and don’t shy away from contact. Harris’ burst, which made him one of the best wide receiver prospects in the nation as a high school kid in Fishers, Indiana, has returned, and that’s a welcome sign for the Nuggets.

3. The Nuggets are so deep, their garbage-time lineups could compete for a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Isaiah Thomas, Juancho Hernangomez, Torrey Craig and Jarred Vanderbilt were all on the floor as the final seconds of Denver’s 27-point win ticked away. Two years ago, Thomas finished fifth in MVP voting. Two months ago, Hernangomez and Craig were rotation pieces helping Denver stay atop the Western Conference despite a laundry list of injuries. Vanderbilt, a versatile one-and-done forward from Kentucky, is an intriguing rookie.

“I love how deep we are,” Malone said. “It’s tough to play all these guys. For us, it’s going to be a different guy every night. We have to understand that. Guys have bought into that because right now it’s all about winning.”

Thomas will be a mainstay in the rotation moving forward, but roles for Hernangomez or Craig are not assured. That’s a wild thought considering how much both guys have already contributed.

4. Denver is rallying behind this Nuggets team. Sunday marked the 19th sellout of the season. The Nuggets are 12th in home attendance overall, a significant jump from 20th in 2017-18 and 30th in 2016-17.

“I love it for real,” Nikola Jokic said. “The crowd, the fans, the people. They are like a sixth player on the court. I really enjoy playing in front of those fans. You can see a lot of good teams come here, popular teams, and our fans are louder than them, so I love it.”

The Nuggets are 26-4 at Pepsi Center, the best home record in the league. They host Oklahoma City on Tuesday and Utah on Thursday. Both are nationally televised games.