Life Moves Pretty Fast
The Denver Nuggets haven't been remotely ready for their title defense. First, they failed to build the depth needed to roll through the regular season. The Nuggets only spent 38 of this season's 160 days in first place. They spent more in second place (40) and third place (56), as well as 26 in fourth. Throughout, the media was unanimous in not worrying about this. The refrain the entire season was "still afraid of Denver" in the playoffs. Then they blew the game in San Antonio at the end of the regular season, and cost themselves the No. 1 seed. Then they needed two bail out game winners to get past a vastly inferior Los Angeles Lakers team. And now they have continued to put up little resistance against Minnesota, trusting that with their championship pedigree and end-game two-player execution in the pick and roll, that they'd pull out games.
It hasn't worked out that way because the Timberwolves were ready for them. The Timberwolves were built for them. They blew the doors off them last night, and Denver reacted like a bunch of fifth graders, their coach included. Michael Malone threw a brief, very heated temper tantrum, but that was nothing compared to Jamal Murray, who pouted like a jilted schoolboy the entire game. His on-court behavior was sad enough, but he also threw a heat pack on the court, nearly injuring his only player in the process. Reggie Jackson already was playing hurt (and would in fact be helped off the court later). Had he stepped differently, and stepped on that heat pack and slipped on it instead of kicking it to the side, we'd be having a very different discussion this morning. I think he should be suspended for Game 3. The only time I can remember a player throwing something on or toward the court in recent memory was in the Eastern Semis in 2022 when Bobby Portis – having a similar hissy fit – chucked his mouthpiece toward the court during Game 7 in Boston. Luckily for him, that was the last game of his season, and it didn't hit anyone on the court, so no discipline was needed. If the league doesn't discipline Murray and the Nuggets, there's nothing stopping them or their fans from doing it again.
But that's not what I really want to focus on. I want to go back to Game 1. The reason pundits have not been worried about the Nuggets is because of their supposed late-game execution. But if you go back and look at the final minute of Game 1, you can see they botched it badly. With 1:36 left, Anthony Edwards put the Wolves up 11 with a turnaround fadeaway. Nikola Jokic then hit two shots in quick succession – a two and a three – to bring the score to 102-96 with 1:02 left. And then the Nuggets fell apart.
It started OK. Jokic gave a foul with 50 seconds left. You'd rather not wait the 12 seconds, but OK, it was the right play. But then the Nuggets, down six points with 50 seconds left, chose to try to play defense and get a stop. And when another 11 seconds ran off the clock before Aaron Gordon foolishly fouled Edwards anyway, they were suddenly down eight points with 39 seconds left. Michael Porter Jr. nearly bailed them out of this by hitting a three pointer four seconds later. Five point game with 35 seconds left. Except then the entire team decided a) that they didn't want to foul Edwards, and also that b) they also didn't want to cover him either. It was like when a defensive team lets the other team score a touchdown on purpose so that they can't run the clock out. Except basketball doesn't work like that, and now the Nuggets were down seven points with 28 seconds left. And when they let Gordon – legitimately one of the worst three-point shooters in the NBA – and he predictably missed it, the game was over.
The Nuggets needed every possession they could get in that final minute. The only way the math works is if they give up two free throws and hit a three of their own to shave a point off the lead, and hope that Minnesota misses a couple of those free throws. Letting the clock run from 1:02 to :39 was a worst-case scenario, and one I think they allowed to happen because they're just not used to those situations. I'll be very curious to see if they do a better job managing the clock in Game 3.
Life Moves Pretty Fast, Entire NBA Edition
This season, 28 players in their age-33 season or older played at least 1,000 minutes. Of the 28, only five are healthy and on teams that are still alive in the playoffs. Nine of them lost or got hurt in the play in. Twelve either lost or got hurt in the first round. And poor Jeff Green didn't even get to the play in. Take a look:
To be honest, it's kind of hard to count Gordon Hayward here. He only played 31 minutes in the Thunder's first four playoff games, and scored a grand total of zero points in those 31 minutes. Jrue Holiday, Mike Conley, Reggie Jackson, and Al Horford are still out there making meaningful contributions to their teams, but things got pretty bleak pretty fast for the old guys.