Do you really think the NBA will let Nikola Jokic and your gritty little Nuggets snuff out the Suns without a fight?
No team wins its first championship without adversity. Why should the Nuggets be any different?
“Things have gone our way so far. We haven’t had much adversity in the postseason,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said Thursday. “So what’s going to be important is if and when we face that adversity, how do we react? Not over-react. And not panic.”
When last we saw Denver and Phoenix on the basketball floor, 37-year-old Suns guard Chris Paul was limping toward retirement and a spicy crowd in Ball Arena demanded a sweep by chanting: “Nugs in four!”
The Nuggets are rolling. And the Joker has jokes.
Asked what he anticipated in Phoenix for Game 3, with the Suns’ backs against the wall, Jokic deadpanned: “I expect they (will) surrender.”
OK, don’t get your undies in a bunch, Kevin Durant. Without a doubt, Jokic was kidding. We all know he rarely talks smack, and when Jokic does, it’s usually in a self-deprecating manner.
The Nuggets, however, are thoroughly amused by their role as a No. 1 seed that entered the playoffs as an underdog to Phoenix, established by Las Vegas oddsmakers as the favorite to emerge from the West. We know that bit of disrespect stuck in the craw of Malone, because he mentions the favored status of KD, CP3 and Devin Booker on the regular, often without prompting.
“It’s a big stage,” Malone said. “We all understand the regular season is great. But names and reputations and careers are built with what you do in the postseason.”
On this big stage, the Suns have revealed themselves to be a surprisingly soft team that loves the mid-range jumper too much. But across the league, Phoenix has a loftier reputation that the Nuggets, in no small part due to Durant’s well-documented history as the most dangerous scorer of on the planet this side of Stephen Curry.
All joking aside, Joker takes mild offense when asked what it will take for the Nuggets to “steal” one of the next two games in The Land of the Fading Suns.
“Why one?” said Jokic, absolutely serious about trying to end this best-of-seven series in Phoenix.
Yes, your gritty little Nuggets are all grown up … and more than a little spicy.
In the next stage of their playoff development, we will see how the Nuggets react to the pitfalls and adversity that awaits every NBA team without a championship pedigree.
I don’t buy the conspiracy theories about the court being tilted unfairly in favor of storied franchises and superstars. But I do believe referees are human, too. And it would surprise nobody, least of all me, after the Nuggets shot 21 free throws in Game 2, while the Suns only earned five attempts from the charity stripe, if Durant and Booker enjoy a favorable whistle in their barn.
While Paul certainly belongs in the debate regarding the greatest point guards of all time, he looked old and a step slow before leaving the Nuggets’ 97-87 victory with a groin strain.
Rather than dooming Phoenix to a fate worse than a sweep, I believe CP3’s absence might actually benefit the Suns in the short term. Why?
For a team that needs to amp up its aggression, backup point guard Cam Payne has a more downhill mentality than Paul. And one of my hoops mentors, former Nuggets coach Doug Moe, taught me long ago that a team rich in talent is likely to perform above all expectations during the first game a star is forced to watch from the sideline.
We recently witnessed this classic all-for-one, win-it-for-Paul theory on full display when Philadelphia thumped Boston in their series opener, despite the absence of Sixers center and new league MVP Joel Embiid.
With NBA history firmly on the side of teams holding a 2-0 series lead, the Nuggets are loose. But they aren’t messing around.
A big step toward a sweep would be to demoralize Phoenix in Game 3.
And it’s Denver that needs to look at this opportunity with the mentality it’s “a must win,” Jokic insisted. “We have our confidence .. We have the momentum. We are playing really good. So why not?”
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