Not that anyone thinks the Nuggets’ blistering 3-point shooting is sustainable for a whole season, but coach Michael Malone wasn’t entirely surprised at what transpired in their season-opening win in Portland.
“There’s karma on the court,” Malone said at Friday’s shootaround ahead of Denver’s home opener vs. Phoenix. “The basketball gods, if you make the right play, the ball’s going to find you back, and if you’re jacking shots to find your own rhythm, well, you’re going to upset the team rhythm.”
The Nuggets connected on 18 of 32 3s in their 108-100 win over Portland on Wednesday. What made them encouraging for Malone was that they were the result of unselfish, intelligent basketball.
“I love how we got the threes,” Malone said. “A lot of paint threes in there, we shot the paint threes at a very high clip. Not just coming down and jacking shots but getting the right kind of 3-point shots, which was terrific.”
Itap just one game, but the Nuggets lead the NBA in 3-point shooting percentage at 56%. Eight different players buried 3-pointers, while seven Nuggets knocked down at least two of them.The best example came when bypassed an open layup attempt and found all alone for a corner 3-pointer late in the game. Itap a point of emphasis for Malone and his staff after they finished last season just 17th from long distance.
“Part of our culture is being a selfless team,” Malone said. “‘Hey, if the ball’s not finding you tonight, keep on making the right play because eventually it will find you because it rewards the right kind of behavior.’”
Aside from playing Denver’s selfless brand of basketball, Malone’s hoping that the home opener doesn’t yield any sort of letdown against Phoenix, who hasn’t made the playoffs since 2010.
“We’re not going to act like that, we just have to come in and we have to be ready to play,” shooting guard said. “We have to be locked in, I don’t think itap us overlooking a team at all, I mean they had a terrific game against Sacramento.”
That mindset is expected from the Nuggets’ longest-tenured player. But whether it permeates the rest of the locker room may be Malone’s biggest concern.
“You can never play down to anyone’s level,” he said. “And who are we to say that in the first place, right? We haven’t done anything.”
