Denver’s goal: Get back to “championship habits”
The late John R. Thompson would’ve been proud.
Inside Georgetown’s gleaming athletic facility, the Nuggets spent part of their Tuesday polishing their recent blemishes and refining an outfit that, despite a recent cold stretch, has designs on hoisting a championship trophy.
Nikola Jokic, clad in sweatpants and a workout shirt, honed his interior game on one hoop, while forwards Michael Porter Jr. and Aaron Gordon buried dozens of 3-pointers on another. Some of the team’s veterans who’ve fallen out of the rotation stayed sharp playing a fullcourt game against team staffers on yet another court.
Jeff Green, who starred at Georgetown, said he had nothing to do with facilitating the logistics of Tuesday’s practice, even if the college gym was fit for an NBA team.
Coach Michael Malone observed as his team, at 48-24 and still with a 3 ½ game lead over No. 2 Memphis, worked. What began as an ignominious road trip has the potential to end on the upswing. If the Nuggets can beat the Wizards on Wednesday, they’ll have won the road trip 3-2 and salvaged what was starting to become a disconcerting malaise.
At just 2- 4 in their last six games, Malone said there was no doubt that level wasn’t acceptable.
“That’s not up to our standards,” he said. “This is gonna sound weird for most people, but more important than the wins and losses, is how we’re playing. Yeah, we want to win every night, but as I told our players yesterday, with 10 games to go now, it’s all about getting back to playing and developing championship habits. We got away from that.”
Was it complacency, or even boredom that fueled their recent fourgame losing streak? The truth is it didn’t matter. And Malone had more than enough film of bad basketball to make his point.
“We had played at such a high level for so long, I think at that point we’re fighting human nature,” he said. “Guys look at the standings. Boom, dog days of the season. ‘Ok, let’s get through this, we just want to get to the playoffs.’ I get that. Yes, we want to win every game we play but more importantly is demanding and holding guys accountable when we’re not playing hard enough, we’re not rebounding, we’re not getting back in transition, we’re not defending the way we did.”
Sunday against the Nets was a step in the right direction. Save for a troubling fourth- quarter stretch that nearly let Brooklyn back into the game, Denver played like a team that wanted to tighten its grip on the
No. 1 seed.
Malone has made a concerted effort not to get too emotional, especially with how well his team had played the first five months of the season. He’s said before that a younger version of himself wouldn’t have handled it the same way.
“The other side of that is OK, making sure that I never show that I’m — and I haven’t, and I won’t — ‘Hey, I’m panicking, we’re freaking out,’ because then our players start to do that. The fine line of, OK, being demanding, holding accountable but also staying positive and keeping guys together.”
Malone wandered over to Jokic late in the practice and shared some insight with his franchise superstar. Later, he touched base with Jamal Murray, who stood on the court with ice packs on both of his knees.
Everything the Nuggets want is still in play. They just need to get through the dog days first.