Greg Anthony will ride shotgun with Nikola Jokic to Timbuktu and back. All day long, baby. No questions asked.
Jokic’s Nuggets teammates?
Not so much.
“I don’t see a scenario, but for an injury, where (the Nuggets) get to the conference final,” Anthony, the former NBA guard and current Turner Sports analyst, said before Denver hosted Portland in Game 1 of their opening round NBA playoffs series late Saturday night.
“And thatap not to take anything away from them. I just don’t see any of the top 3 seeds (in the West) getting to the Finals, unless some (other) teams aren’t healthy.
“Listen, I think this Portland series could be a tough matchup for Denver — and itap based on personnel and matchups. And I think Jokic is going to play really well in this series. Outside of that, though, I don’t know who else really plays great.”
They’ve got nothing to lose now, except games. The Nuggets have the talking heads right where they want them: Shovels in hand, piling on the doubt. Second verse, same as the first.
“If I’m a Nuggets fan, you’ve got to get to the conference finals,” Reggie Miller, Anthony’s Turner Sports teammate, said of Denver’s postseason outlook a few days ago. “But do you really believe thatap going to be the case, because of the loss of Jamal Murray?
“Jokic, he probably is the MVP, but do you really trust the top three seeds in the West, in Phoenix and Utah and Denver? I mean, they’re unproven …”
Perfect. Doubt them. Go on. Do it. The Nuggets feed off skepticism the way a ficus does sunlight. Your qualms only make them stronger.
Nobody plays the ’s-ܲ-Բ-ٳ-پ쾱Բ-ɴǰ card better than Nuggets coach Michael Malone, a guy who would pluck bulletin-board material out of the greeting card aisle if it meant giving his guys an edge.
“Listen,” Malone told reporters earlier this month. “Nikola doesn’t get respect. The Nuggets don’t get respect. I don’t get respect. Who cares?
“All I care about is us staying together, finding ways to win and continuing to prove people wrong.”
He loves that, doesn’t he? The proving-people-wrong part. When Murray was lost for the season in San Francisco, the fun wasn’t just that the Nuggets kept winning or that the Joker kept … Jokering.
It was the looks.
The faces of the experts having to explain why the Nuggets didn’t just immediately sink, like the Titanic, into the cold, murky depths of the North Atlantic.
The moments when Michael Porter Jr. would occasionally let his guard down and enlighten those postgame Zooms with a knowing, almost cocky, little smirk.
The awe and respect in Aaron Gordon’s voice when he talked about the talent, motivation and purpose around him.
The certainty of JaVale McGee, who’s been here before. Who knows what that certainty, that singular vision, is supposed to look like.
There’s a steel there, a bond strengthened by injuries and karma, united by a simple mantra: Hey, man, can’t get much worse. And when it does, you deal with it, dust yourself off, and get the heck back to work.
“Monte Morris is your backup PG, and he’s a great player, but their depth — and (Facu) Campazzo has had some wonderful moments for them,” Anthony opined. “I just don’t know that, in a 7-game series, that that roster is really going to go on a deep run in the postseason, unfortunately.”
Doubt them. Go on. Thatap the beauty of this Nuggets team, one of the main reasons the last month of the regular season became so much fun to watch. Why every postseason win feels like house money in your pocket.
“The game does slow down come playoff basketball,” Miller continued, “and you’ve got to have playmakers — guys that, when the (expletive) hits the fan, they can execute and they can adapt.
“Murray is that type of player. So I’ll be curious to see how Michael Malone kind of trudges forward without him during the playoffs.”
Softly. But with a big stick.
