At midpoint of season, COVID fatigue emerging
There was noticeable frustration among the Nuggets in the aftermath of Saturday’s loss to the Mavericks, and it had little to do with Dallas stars Luka Doncic or Kristaps Porzingis and how well they played.
The Nuggets were exhausted following Friday night’s game in Memphis and irritated over a mistake with Saturday’s COVID testing, which forced players back to the arena at mid-day.
“There was a big screw-up with their testing (Saturday),” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “They tested in the morning, and then because there was a mistake, they had to come back to the arena probably between 12-1, which I’m sure messed up a lot of their gameday routines.”
As a result of the All-Star Game, players and coaches have had to test three times daily to account for players traveling out of market. That number is expected to drop to twice daily soon. For now, the extra test is just one more obligation.
Asked about the testing fatigue, Michael Porter Jr. acable knowledged the protocol has taken a toll.
“Of course it is,” he said. “No one wants to get back in the morning, get back to their house at 2 a.m. It takes a while to go to sleep and then have to wake up at 8 o’clock to go test. So that’s hard for guys. But this is our job. No excuses. We’re not doing anything that other teams aren’t doing.”
Added Will Barton after the loss: “It was a brutal day.”
Not only did the Nuggets have to contend with a back-to-back to open the second half of their schedule, they also had to consider the impending snow storm, which was initially predicted to start as the team was traveling home from Memphis.
Fresh off the All-Star break, you’d have thought the team was fully rested and mentally recharged.
“Yes, there was an All-Star break, but not really,” said Malone, who lamented not being to fully unplug. “No matter where you were, I still had to come down to the arena every day to test. As did every other player and coach in the NBA. So I am not singing the blues, I’m just stating the facts.”
The density of the second half schedule is equally as unrelenting. Including Monday’s game against Indiana, the Nuggets will play 34 games in the next 63 days. Most weeks will see four games packed into the schedule. And unlike other teams, the Nuggets have just two “series” games — meaning back-to-back against the same opponent in the same location. According to Malone, the Nuggets have the fewest in the Western Conference.
“Those were put in place to ease the amount of travel you have,” he said.
At 22-16 and tied for fifth in the Western Conference, the Nuggets are still operating from a place of advantage. But any notion the logistics of the season might get easier is quickly proving unfounded.