NEW YORK — Inspired by a singular mission, Nuggets coach Michael Malone might have set a personal record for sprint time between the locker room and press conference podium Thursday night.
No need for belabored speeches after losing a 122-84 laugher at Madison Square Garden. Joel Embiid would be waiting soon in Denver. The Nuggets needed to hightail it to the bus, to the plane, to the Front Range.
After their longest stretch away from home all season, they weren’t afforded a breather. Nuggets vs. 76ers, afternoon edition, is this Saturday (3:30 p.m. MT, ABC).
“Overall, I thought it was a very good road trip,” Malone said, keeping in mind the big picture. “Obviously a very disappointing ending to it. You never want to lose a game. You never want to get blown out, which is what happened tonight. But you live to fight another day, and that’s what we’ll do. … All of our focus right now is on getting home, getting some rest tomorrow. Thankful that the NBA gave us a matinee game on Saturday.”
“We came out with a winning record, so that’s always nice,” Aaron Gordon said. “But I do wish that we could get that one back.”
The five-game trip ended with the Nuggets (31-15) slipping back to 1.5 games behind Minnesota atop the Western Conference late Thursday. It started with a five-hour flight delay on the tarmac and a narrow loss to Embiid in Philadelphia.
Everything in between was pretty successful: a three-game win streak, a statement in Boston, a comeback in Indiana. But the unspoken feeling that engulfs every Nuggets-Sixers matchup these days is that it matters emotionally just a bit more than other regular-season games. The world is keeping score in the Jokic vs. Embiid saga.
Head-to-head favors Embiid, 6-2, but the upcoming rematch has particular baggage. It’s been more than an Olympic cycle since Embiid last played a game at Ball Arena, causing Nuggets fans to ridicule the Philly center with “Missing Person” signs the last time Philly visited. This is the last scheduled matchup of the season, unless the stars align in the NBA Finals. Embiid’s availability is highly anticipated, as is Jokic’s, assuming he hasn’t gone blind. In the locker room after Denver’s loss to the Knicks, he said his injured left eye had started to feel better earlier — “but now it’s getting worse again.”
Jokic plans to treat Friday like a regular day, spending time with his family in Denver. Gordon, on the other hand, hopes to sleep as much as possible to expedite his mental recovery from a long trip.
“I feel like our communication was lacking on the defensive end, and I think that comes down to just a little bit of exhaustion,” Gordon said after the blowout loss. “Fatigue, a little bit. It’s just harder to do both. Play defense, play offense and communicate. I think that was what we were missing, the communication to each other tonight.”
Malone sensed the collective exhaustion from the beginning of the game, as the Nuggets struggled to keep up with the Knicks in transition and navigate the defensive tenacity of New York’s new-look team. O.G. Anunoby amassed six steals as Denver finished with a season-worse assist-to-turnover ratio of 20 to 19.
“We didn’t screen enough,” Jokic said. “Our passes were lazy. It was just not a good night for us.”
With the context of that long-trip lethargy in mind, Malone didn’t find it in him to be too worked up over the rout. Even before the game, he shared a sense of perspective. “You hope by the end of the regular season, after you’ve played 82, you’re in a good position to have home-court advantage,” the coach said. “Having that throughout the playoffs last year was really important to us. … But we want to get to the postseason healthy, rested. That’s probably more important than anything.”
Same rule applies for the next 76ers game.
Jokic on sixth All-Star selection
Jokic has never been one to act sentimental about his individual awards, but he took a moment to share his thoughts on being selected to a sixth consecutive All-Star Game on Thursday night.
“It’s nice. This is my fifth? Sixth year. So I will say to the guys in the locker room when I go there, it’s always a pleasure to be around them, in that group of people,” Jokic said. “It’s an honor and a legacy that me or the guys over there are going to appreciate when we’ve finished (our) career.”
This will also be Jokic’s fourth consecutive season starting in the All-Star Game, which takes place Feb. 18 in Indianapolis. He’s closing in on Alex English’s eight All-Star appearances for the Nuggets franchise record.
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