NEW ORLEANS — ‘s playing time before Sunday had been so rare in the second half of the season that Nuggets coach Michael Malone felt compelled to provide a reminder about the player set to assume heavy backcourt responsibility against the Heat.
“He’s a guy who has started a lot of basketball games,” Malone said before Mudiay tallied 17 points and nine assists in a 116-113 victory that snapped a three-game losing streak. “I expect him to come into the game and impact it in a positive way. He’s worked very hard since he’s been taken out of that rotation. He has a lot of confidence and he should. He’s played good basketball for us at times.”
The “at times” portion of Malone’s praise of Mudiay spoke to why the No. 7 overall pick in the 2015 draft has experienced a precipitous drop from second-year starter to a third-string point guard who has gobbled up “Did Not Play” distinctions in box scores since the all-star break. Mudiay, before suffering a back injury in January that cost him 11 games, had failed to show consistent improvement in many key areas that plagued him as a rookie, particularly outside shooting and ball protection.
It’s a small sample size given how little Mudiay has played since the all-star break, but the 21-year-old appears to be emboldened rather than discouraged by his demotion. That much was apparent in the way he confidently attacked the Heat defense, earning 10 trips to the free-throw line and completing a tough layup in traffic that put the Nuggets up five points with a little more than 1 minute remaining.
It wasn’t the first time Mudiay has stepped in and performed since his demotion. In a heartbreaking one-point loss at Houston on March 20, it was Mudiay who entered in the second quarter and scored eight points while helping Denver turn around an early double-digit deficit.
The work that has helped prepare Mudiay perform in those stretches — including three-on-three games against staff members after practices to ensure he gets the conditioning he needs — has created respect among his teammates.
“It’s hard to come in like that when you haven’t played consistent minutes in a long time,” forward said. “That was huge for us. Without him, we don’t win that game (at Miami). We needed that boost, and I’m glad for him as an individual, too.”
So will Mudiay’s play get him off the bench during the final six games of the season? That could partly depend on how soon , the starter at point guard since the break, returns from the right calf injury that kept him out of Sunday’s game.
The Nuggets’ playoff hopes are nearly extinct. Trailing Portland by two games and a tiebreaker for the final postseason spot in the Western Conference entering Monday, with only six games to left. Denver would likely need to win its remaining six games, beginning with Tuesday’s against the Pelicans, to have a realistic chance at the postseason.
Malone insisted the Nuggets are hanging onto that hope, creating a “delicate balance” as it pertains to the amount of playing time given to players like Mudiay down the stretch.
“We want to win games, we want to be a playoff team, but we also want to give our young players opportunities to go out there and grow,” Malone said. “You can’t grow if you’re not out there playing, if you’re not put in these situations. Experience is the best teacher for all of us, and I think we’ve seen that from Emmanuel to Nikola (Jokic) to Jamal (Murray) to Juancho (Hernangomez) and all those guys. It’s a delicate balance, but any minutes they get are only going to help those guys.”
DENVER AT NEW ORLEANS, 6 p.m., Tuesday, ALT, 950 AM
Spotlight on DeMarcus Cousins: The Nuggets keep avoiding the all-star center this season. Cousins was traded from the Kings to the Pelicans four days before Denver was set to visit Sacramento in February. He also was a late scratch with an ankle injury March 26, and the Pelicans went on to crush the Nuggets 115-90 without him. Cousins should be in the lineup Tuesday night. In three games since returning from the injury, Cousins is averaging 30.7 points and 15.7 rebounds per game.
Nuggets: Danilo Gallinari shot just 21.2 percent from the field and 16.7 percent from 3-point range in his first three games after returning from a recent knee injury that kept him out four games. But Gallinari now appears to be finding his stroke. The veteran forward is shooting 16-of-30 from the field and 7-of-13 from 3-point range in his last two games while averaging 24 points. … The Nuggets have given up 12 3-pointers in the last two fourth quarters combined. … Forward Darrell Arthur (knee) and guards Will Barton (foot) and Jameer Nelson (calf) are listed as questionable.
Pelicans: New Orleans held the Nuggets to 5-of-25 shooting in the second quarter of their blowout victory over Denver at the Pepsi Center on March 26, a loss that began a three-game losing streak for Denver. … Anthony Davis is averaging 40.5 points and 14 rebounds in two games against the Nuggets this season. Davis is the only current New Orleans player who was drafted by the team. … The Pelicans are 13-5 this season when guard Jrue Holiday scores at least 20 points.
