Team crystallizes motivation

On the near side of the Nuggets’ practice court, the one closest to the assembled media, Jamal Murray rose up for a handful of basic dunks.

He posted up rookie Bones Hyland, moved on to a stouter staffer and then teased a return that’s been almost a year in the making.

Murray wandered over to the seat designed for player interviews, plopped himself down and asked, innocently: “Y’all want me?”

When several media members bit, that famous Cheshire grin spread across Murray’s face.

“I’m just messing with you,” Murray said.

On the eve of the regular- season finale, Murray still hasn’t made a determination on his status for the playoffs, but he knows everyone’s curious.

And he’s not above leveraging that angst into a moment of levity.

Some 15 minutes after the rest of the court cleared out, Murray sat on a gray medicine ball in front of Nuggets coach Michael Malone discussing who knows what. The extended conversation lasted beyond when the media took off, too.

Malone confirmed that neither Murray nor Michael Porter Jr. took part in practice on Saturday, but the Nuggets did enjoy the partial returns of Zeke Nnaji ( knee) and Vlatko Cancar ( foot). Both Murray and Porter were officially ruled out for Sunday’s game vs. the Lakers, while Nnaji and Cancar were upgraded to questionable.

Starters Nikola Jokic ( wrist), Will Barton ( knee), Aaron Gordon ( hamstring) and Monte Morris ( elbow) were all listed as questionable on the team’s injury report as well.

“Regardless of who plays tomorrow, we have to keep an edge,” Malone said.

The Nuggets, at 48- 33, are the No. 6 seed heading into Sunday evening’s finale against the Lakers. Depending on Utah’s result at Portland — scheduled to tip off at the same time — the No. 5 seed remains a possibility as well. Who the Nuggets face in the first round ( Dallas or Golden State) will be contingent on the final day’s results.

“No one’s in there like, ‘ Oh, we want to play Golden State rather than Dallas, or Dallas rather than Golden State,’” Will Barton said.

Coming off an impressive win over the Grizzlies, Malone, at least publicly, was far more concerned about maintaining their rhythm than jockeying for playoff positioning.

“Whoever plays, we’re going out there to win the game,” Malone said. “Not because of scenarios. We want to make sure we’re doing the right thing by us.”

At Saturday’s practice, the team sharpened defensive principles and scripted some offensive plays. It didn’t last long, and guys got their shots up.

The last thing Malone wants is for his team to exhale just because it has locked up a playoff seed.

When he talks about “doing the right thing,” he means competing, rather than rolling over. There are reasons the Nuggets might want to remain in the No. 6 seed, such as potentially avoiding a surging Suns team if they got to the second round. But that doesn’t mean laying down vs. Los Angeles.

When Barton was asked for Sunday’s motivation, he didn’t hesitate.

“Win, keep a rhythm going,” he said. “… I got confidence no matter who we play.”