Strike 1: Hold off on that obituary for now. The Denver Nuggets could maybe, possibly be back from the dead. Maybe.
Yes, it’s fair to call the most recent two-game set in Minnesota a “twin killing,” baseball style. But to steal another baseball phrase, “it ain’t over ‘till it’s over.”
They still have to win at home of course.
Given up for dead by many after losing the first two games at Ball Arena to the Timberwolves, the Nuggets rebounded in a big way after getting a healthy dose of “they don’t respect us” from all angles, including the TV talking heads. Most of those folks not only discounted the Nuggets chances, but piled on with comments about “not having to go back to Denver.” We’re looking at you Stephen A.
Any team that’s won a championship and is trying to repeat the feat has to seek out and find another gear, another source of motivation. The “nobody believes in us,” it’s “us against the world” stuff is hard to muster up if everyone is heaping praise on you most of the season. Only those with a magnifying glass who are specifically looking more closely for flaws are going to offer up much criticism during the regular season. And if you’re the champs, you’re probably not listening to those folks anyway.
So the Nuggets coasted through the regular season with little or no national criticism, hearing about their best player being the front runner for yet another MVP award, only being pushed on occasion (including those key games down the stretch) and almost always being able to answer the bell in crunch time. They were basically operating on auto-pilot.
They played that way in a first round five game series against the Los Angeles Lakers before running into a young, hungry outfit from Minnesota that was their equal during the regular season, and possessed that first time drive that the defending champs didn’t have anymore. The T-Wolves looked like the far better team in taking that 2-0 series lead in Denver.
And the Nuggets looked gassed.
Then something changed – in a big way – after the planes touched down in the twin cities. The Nuggets mind set, helped along by a reported video compilation of the negative national discourse, flipped from fat cat to underdog again, and with the bench suddenly not being a liability, they looked like the team that rolled through the playoffs last season, rather than the tired squad that churned through this one.
Jamal Murray – dissed and dressed down after his Game 2 meltdown – looked healthy and hungry again, while little used Justin Holiday stepped up to play Bruce Brown off the bench. And who knew Christian Braun could actually hit 3-pointers?
This series isn’t over by a long shot. Minnesota didn’t suddenly become the bubble version of the Los Angeles Clippers. They’re still big, they’re still physical, and they’re still hungry. The Nuggets can’t get caught up in praise and apologies from the national (or local) talkers. What they really need is some additional bad mouthing coming from their TV sets. Gotta muster up that “us against the world” mentality a few more times.
