HOUSTON — Jeff Green and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope couldn’t bear to watch the last painful seconds of Tuesday’s abomination against the Rockets.
They began walking off the court toward the visiting locker room about 10 seconds before the final buzzer sounded on Houston’s triumphant 124-103 win over Denver.
Needing only a win to clinch the first-ever No. 1 seed in Nuggets history, Denver didn’t take the challenge seriously or overlooked the nature of their opponent. Either should be damning at this stage of the season.
“We came in thinking this game was going to be easy,” Caldwell-Pope told The Denver Post. “… We didn’t take full advantage of it.”
The Nuggets began Tuesday morning walking through the Rockets’ tendencies in a hotel ballroom. They were reminded, incessantly, that the plucky Rockets crash the glass hard. They were also reminded that the Nuggets could circumvent the drama, avoid any help from Memphis, and crown themselves the top seed in the West with a win in Houston.
Neither message seemed to resonate.
Nuggets coach Michael Malone hoped the loud one he issued postgame would.
“We had a chance to clinch number one tonight and we talked about it this morning, the opportunity at hand,” he said. “And we definitely did not take that opportunity seriously because the way we played tonight was unacceptable playing like that, this late in the year. If that’s how we’re going to play, we’ll be out in the first round. Easy. Easy.”
He was referring to the team’s focus, engagement, discipline and care. None were at the level required to beat a team with pride and athleticism, let alone a playoff opponent.
It’s games like Tuesday’s underwhelming and confounding effort that fuel the narrative that the West is wide-open despite Denver’s residence atop the conference for months.
Nikola Jokic returned after missing three games with a calf injury. He was plodding and lethargic, registering eight of his team’s 20 turnovers. For a team thatap lottery-bound, Tuesday was Houston’s final chance to make an impression in front of their home fans. And Denver didn’t come close to matching their energy.
“They were the aggressor, they were the more physical team and (I’m) really disappointed in terms of our effort and our approach tonight,” Malone said after describing his team as “soft.”
The Nuggets also endured a first-half thumb injury to Jamal Murray, who’d been navigating a nagging sprain for several games. He didn’t play in the second half. Malone was unwilling to use his absence as any type of excuse.
“Is Jamal going to get 19 defensive rebounds?” Malone said, alluding to the 20 offensive rebounds Denver conceded. Some of the missed box-outs were glaring in nature.
When Malone walked into the locker room after the game, he was happy to hear veterans speaking out, sharing their displeasure with how ugly Tuesday became. But he couldn’t bite his tongue after a performance like that. Not this close to the postseason, with the chance to cement history, and an opportunity to re-establish some chemistry after Jokic had missed the last few games.
“Well, I’m definitely going to say something,” he said of the opportunity squandered.
“… And I speak the truth and me calling us soft tonight isn’t something I’m saying to you,” Malone continued. “I just told our team that and I dared somebody to challenge me that it wasn’t true and no one did because we, as a group, were soft tonight.”
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