Nuggets escape with win, reveal difference between good and great teams

Nobody was arguing with the head honcho who admitted he almost blew a game.

Denver Nuggets coach Michael Malone threw himself on the sword for doing a poor job in getting Aaron Gordon back in a game nobody thought would be close.

“All of a sudden with three or four minutes to go it’s a game,” said Malone. “He was sitting so long, I didn’t think it was fair to put him back out there. But, that was a poor coaching decision on my part.”

Gordon was a game-high plus-20, in what should’ve been an easy close-out against a team that was waving a white flag before the battle, turned into complete aggravation despite the positive outcome.

As predictable as a March snowstorm in Colorado sat a sign holding shattered, young Philadelphia 76ers fan in the front row during warm-ups before Monday night’s Nuggets 116-111 win. The downtrodden youngster had cardboard so large it could double for his science fair tri-fold for his report on alleged calf injuries.

“$500 4 Load Managment. Thanks Sixers!!!”

It was written in purple pen and unlike most “devastated youth” with sign signs it lacked significant amounts of sparkle. Hey, if you are gonna put words in your kids’ mouth, at least have flare!

It was announced, nearly nine hours before tip, that Sixers star Joel Embiid would not be playing because of “calf tightness.” Maybe the Dad should’ve killed two birds with one stone told his kid about Embiid and Santa.

The dubious decision to sit Embiid was so weak that Nikola Jokic serial doubter Kendrick Perkins said on ESPN the decision to not play would possibly impact his MVP vote.

Welcome back to the circle of trust, Perk!

The Sixers also decided that James Harden wasn’t quite ready either. His Achilles injury made him miss four straight games, why not take another one off?!?

The Sixers fans, with tears in their eyes that haven’t dried since their Eagles lost the Super Bowl, were left with revolutionary hope in Tyrese Maxey.

“I’m trying to tell everybody when you look at Tyrese, he’s a smaller version,” said Maxey’s and Jamal Murray’s college coach John Calipari. “But he’s still 6-foot-2, of Jamal Murray who is 6-foot-5.”

The younger, shorter version of Jamal felt the same Rocky Mountain pressure that so many have suffered from when coming to Denver this season.

With 25 first half points the former Kentucky guard gave Philadelphia freedom to keep up with the Western Conference leading Nuggets trailing by a mere four points.

But, in their fourth head-to-head battle, the student did not become the teacher. Maxey and the Sixers were eventually neutralized like so many other teams who have had glimpses of hope this season at Ball Arena.

The Nuggets win in one of the most bad feeling wins of the year. Post game recap! @DenverSportsCom pic.twitter.com/hkKL1gDvRC

— Darren McKee (@DMacRadio) March 28, 2023

Maxey would only score four second-half points. While 29 points for the night is respectful, Murray’s night was better as it came with a win.

Nikola Jokic had been called out for his poor defense against the Spurs in a ridiculous ESPN article earlier in the day. He responded by barely shooting in the first 24 minutes going 2-for-4, but overcoming all odds (sarcasm) he pulled down 11 rebounds and nine assists. He secured his standard triple-double before the end of the third period.

Remind me again who the MVP deserves to be?

The Nuggets wiped the floor in the third with the corpse of the Sixers outscoring them 30-20. More of the same was reasonable to expect.

The fourth was punctuated by an insane put back one hand jam by Christian Braun which was quickly followed by a three by the Kansas legend on the next possession.

As Jokic stepped to the line in the fourth for free throws it was easy to hear where the MVP chants could also be heard as “Where’s Embiid?”

But disturbingly, the entire night almost fell apart.

“Yeah, it was a win, an ugly win. We let them back in the game,” said a disappointed Michael Malone. “Our fourth quarter, we played no defense and allowed it to be cut to a one possession game. You take a win anyway you can, but you have to be better over the course of 48 minutes than we were tonight.”

The Nuggets came close to blowing a 22-point lead to a team without the courage to play their best players. The Sixers finished strong out-scoring the Nuggets 34-25 in the final quarter.

“If we want to be a team to make a deep playoff run we can’t play like that when we have a lead, ” said Malone. “We have to put teams away.”

Showing a significant amount of heart by not to allowing the game to get away from them, Philly narrowed the lead to three with 13.3 seconds to go.

“We can’t have that,” said Bruce Brown. “Especially with two superstar players out. We just gotta put them to rest…early.”

“Disaster,” said Jokic of the horrific final quarter. “It was stupid.”

But, the end result remained the same as the Nuggets held on to win buoyed by Jokic’s 29th triple-double of the season 25 points, 17 rebounds and 12 assists and a couple of big-time free throws by Jeff Green.

As the cliche goes, it’s better to learn while winning than losing. The Nuggets were despondent in victory as their faltering defense felt alarming, but that’s the difference between great teams and teams that portend to be great.

Whatever down moments the Nuggets have had are bookended with the harsh reality that teams from the west and hopefully one of the teams from the east will somehow have to win in our mile-high altitude that contains significant championship attitude.

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