DENVER
The Denver Nuggets will keep Bruce Brown employed for a long break before the start of the NBA Finals to work on the game of … golf.
“The first day of golf went well for me,” Brown recalled. “Second, awesome.”
On Friday, he returned to work and hit his best shots, jumping in front of the rim. The Nuggets are back on the court for a light workout.
The franchise’s first appearance in the NBA Finals is almost a week away and its opponent has yet to be determined. Boston and Miami square off in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference final series.
It was a welcome break. But it is a matter of concern.
“It’s impossible to keep your composure if you don’t play games,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “You can do what you want in practice, but there’s no way to replicate what an NBA playoff game is.”
The Nuggets celebrated the loss of the Los Angeles Lakers by heading home on a plane. This gave them a different day on Tuesday and an optional day on Wednesday (although some players showed up to practice). On Thursday at Lord’s Supper there were conditioning exercises and other individual exercises before returning to the hall to practice on Friday.
The intensity will build as Thursday, the series opener, approaches and the Nuggets will immediately figure out who they are going to face (the Savages lead 3-2 with the series, which returns to Miami on Saturday).
“Right now, as I tell our players, it’s about us,” Malone said. “We have to confirm our identity and place where we have not been enough.”
Before the break, Nikola Jokic, guard Jamal Murray and the Nuggets were sailing smoothly, going 12-3 in the run. Murray’s best advice is to keep training as you want to play.
“No bad habits to pick up this week,” Murray said. “You can’t just stay locked in and relax. I think that’s the most important thing: we don’t want to sit and just wait. We want to stay focused.”
Murray got the chance Thursday night to sing in ice hockey’s Stanley Cup playoffs. He watched the team in green (description of the Dallas Stars) beat the white team (Las Vegas Golden Knights) in overtime in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals.
He said the game taught him a great lesson, to play with the same passion every time, especially in defense.
