After his first season in Denver, Nuggets coach Michael Malone learned the locals’ relationship with his team might not always be one of unconditional love.
“Met with some of the business folks talking about how we could get more people in the building,” Malone reflected after the fifth game of a home-court, hold-serve playoff series with the Phoenix Suns. “They were saying, ‘Coach, the people that live in Denver, most of them are not native to this area. It’s a transient city with people from all over. So you’ve gotta earn their fandom and you’ve gotta build a winner.’”
That meeting has been on Malone’s mind recently because he and the Nuggets have witnessed the message getting stretched to fruition in these playoffs. Denver is 6-0 at Ball Arena and 1-3 away from home entering Thursday night’s Game 6 in Phoenix. The only NBA team left standing with home-court advantage over the Nuggets is the winner of the Boston-Philadelphia series.
As they flew back to Arizona for a close-out opportunity, they had the comfort of knowing that if they wanted to reach the NBA Finals the hard way, they could do so still without winning another game on the road.
Not that they had any desire of reaching the promised land that way.
“I believe our defense will travel,” Aaron Gordon said after Game 5.
“They’ve been getting out in transition more (in Phoenix),” Michael Porter Jr. said of the Suns. “So we’ve gotta make sure we’re getting back on defense. They run more in their building, just like we run more in our building.”
Tempo has indeed not traveled. The Nuggets averaged 10.5 fast-break points in Games 3 and 4 and were outscored by double digits in transition both times. Then back at Ball Arena, they sped up the pace with 31 fast-break points, egged on by a crowd willing to boost their egos. Even Christian Braun startled the Suns with a pick-pocket defensive play and transition dunk, forcing a Phoenix timeout while Denver showered the rookie with appreciation.
“It kind of felt like back to college,” said Braun, who won a national championship at Kansas last season and played in front of Allen Fieldhouse’s famed atmosphere. “The crowd’s great. Obviously our home crowd is great all the time. But just making one of those plays … you get to show some emotion.”
If home court could have that dramatic an impact on a bench contributor Braun, it was enough to make Malone think back to that meeting.
“I go back to Year 1, Year 2, Year 3 and then Year 4 — we finally broke through,” Malone said. “And Game 1 against the Spurs (in the 2019 first round), I get goosebumps every time I think about it. Because this place was unbelievable. And since that point in time, it’s only gotten better. … I think they’ve appreciated the product, the winning, the style of play.”
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