Christian Braun jinxed himself last week.

Try as he might to keep the streak alive, it was bound to end eventually. On Monday night in Sacramento, Braun was ruled out with a strained lower back one hour before opening tip, snapping his run of 122 consecutive games played dating back to the 2023 playoffs.

The 23-year-old shooting guard has developed into a staple of the Nuggets’ lineup on a nightly basis only two years and change into his career.

“My goal is to be out there every game,” Braun said the previous Thursday, after a practice at Ball Arena. “I think everybody knows that. I don’t want to jinx it. I haven’t missed a game (for an injury) in a long time. Even back to college. And sometimes you have bumps and bruises, and maybe you don’t feel like it that day. But you’ve gotta be ready to play when it’s time to play. So that’s my biggest goal: Just be out there every single night. Be available every single night.

“That’s what I owe to this team. That’s what I owe to everybody who’s believed in me. That’s why I owe to the front office, the coaches, everybody who comes to watch. Fans. Family.”

Before his back got in the way, his quad almost did. Braun was listed as questionable to play two weekends ago in Washington, but coach Michael Malone admitted before the game that he expected Braun to play.

“That guy is just one big muscle,” Malone said.

The wear and tear is a package deal with learning how to be an everyday NBA starter, as Braun sees it. He played through injuries during his second season. Now in his third, he’s averaging 14.5 more minutes per game.

“Trying to get a recovery plan after every game,” he said. “Sometimes last year I didn’t need to get in the ice bath after the game, but I need to make it a routine where I’m in it every single day (now), where I’m in the Normatec boots every single night. Getting to sleep earlier. Those things. … I’ve gotta pick Russ (Westbrook’s) brain because it seems like Russ has energy every single day.”

Entering Denver’s matchup with the Trail Blazers on Thursday, Braun has now sat out eight games in his professional career, including the playoffs. He had an iron man season in 2023-24. The seven games he missed as a rookie were rotational decisions rather than injury-forced absences. He has appeared in 96.4% of the Nuggets’ games in the last three seasons.

And still, Braun was self-critical about his body maintenance last week, as if foreseeing a night he would have to miss on the horizon.

“I need to be better with my recovery,” he said. “And that’s a learning process. I need to learn a new routine. New way to play 35 minutes a night. Play 35 minutes a night, still get better as an individual, still win games, still play winning basketball, and put all that together. And I wouldn’t say it’s been a struggle, but I’m gonna continue to learn.

“There are going to be times my body goes through really good moments, and there (have) been times where it hasn’t been so good. But that’s no excuse. I’ve gotta be out there 35 minutes, 40 minutes. Whatever it is.”

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In the latest edition of the Nuggets Ink podcast, beat writer Bennett Durando and sports editor Matt Schubert reconvene as trade season begins in the NBA. Among the topics discussed:

• Zach Lavine to the Denver Nuggets … not so fast, sweetheart. Can the front office make a pitch to move enough pieces to upgrade — Or not upgrade? — a roster that has left fans wondering if the glory of 2023 can return to the Mile High.
• If not Lavine, then who? Jordan Poole, Cam Johnson? Is MPJ worth keeping, if the market yields parallel moves?
• Jamal Murray does Jamal Murray things in Sacramento. Is his early-season lull an aberration? Will he return to form?
• The Bucks win the in-season tournament. Can the Nuggets find a way to take seriously the fledgling competition or are their sights solely set on another NBA Finals run this season and for years to come?

Subscribe to the podcast
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Producer: AAron Ontiveroz
Music: “The Last Dragons” by Schama Noel

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Perception of the 2024-25 Nuggets is turning into a case study of optimism vs. pessimism.

Are you a glass-half-full kind of person? Then when the Nuggets improved to 14-10 with their latest miracle this week in Sacramento, you probably thought of the remarkable number of clutch moments they’ve conjured in such a small fraction of this season, from a refreshing variety of sources.

You probably dwelled on Jamal Murray’s game-winning step-back jumper with 8.6 seconds remaining. Maybe it reminded you of Murray’s game-tying layup in Toronto with 0.3 seconds left. Or Nikola Jokic’s game-tying baby hook with 8.1 to go in Brooklyn. Or Julian Strawther’s decisive contested layup with 1:09 left back home in Denver. Or Michael Porter Jr.’s game-winner with 6.1 seconds left against Dallas, or Peyton Watson’s last-second block on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, or any of the other little moments that colored Denver’s four double-digit comeback wins in the fourth quarter this season.

Are you a glass-half-empty kind of person? Then the moment that stuck in your craw from Sacramento was more likely the last play, after Murray’s shot, when DeMar DeRozan fumbled a pass from Domantas Sabonis that might’ve resulted in a game-winning layup. You probably had flashbacks to how close the Nuggets were to losing so many of their most compelling wins. How the Raptors missed two free throws in the last 20 seconds while trying to protect the lead, how R.J. Barrett’s game-winning attempt in the rematch was halfway down before it popped out at the buzzer. How Dorian Finney-Smith missed a wide-open corner three in Brooklyn as time expired, or how Kyrie Irving waited for his last shot to finally miss after amassing 43 points.

The first quarter of this season has been, well, a lot to process. And the answers still aren’t entirely clear.

That’s why the Nuggets feel inclined to exercise patience before making any changes to their roster. NBA trade season unofficially began on Dec. 15, the date when free agents acquired this summer became trade-eligible, but it doesn’t end until Feb. 6. Denver will have played 51 games by then. As of this week, according to league sources, the Nuggets are open to the idea of adding depth or star power before the trade deadline, but their preferred outcome is to feel confident not making a major trade.

Who can the Nuggets trade?

Denver is currently $5.6 million over the first tax apron and $5.1 million below the second apron. The team is hard-capped at the second apron this season as a result of using the taxpayer mid-level exception to sign Dario Saric. As a first-apron team, the Nuggets can aggregate salaries in a trade, but they can’t take back more salary than they send out.

Before considering who they might be able to get, it helps to know who they’re allowed to give up. This is the part when Ebenezer Scrooge shows up to outline how limited Denver’s options are. Bah humbug to your trade wishlists.

Here are the eight most expensive players on the roster (based on their salaries this season) and their trade eligibility.

Nikola Jokic, $51.4 million: His name wasn’t even worth including. Formality only. He’s “eligible,” but he’s not eligible.

Jamal Murray, $36 million: Not eligible to be traded until the 2025 offseason due to a signing restriction. Murray signed a four-year, $208.5 million max extension in September.

Michael Porter Jr., $35.9 million: Denver’s only tradeable player with a salary north of $10 million this season.

Aaron Gordon, $22.8 million: Not eligible to be traded until the 2025 offseason due to a signing restriction. Gordon signed a four-year, $133 million extension in October.

Zeke Nnaji, $8.9 million: Eligible to be traded, but trade value is low. Nnaji is in the first season of a four-year, $32 million extension, while he continues to drift in and out of the rotation. On the bright side: Unlike last season, Denver is not faced with a poison pill restriction, which causes a player’s incoming salary to be counted as higher than his outgoing salary after he signs a rookie extension. This made it nearly impossible to trade Nnaji last season.

Dario Saric, $5.2 million: Eligible to be traded, but trade value is low. Saric signed with Denver for the mid-level in July. He has a player option next offseason, then one year remaining on his contract. He has played in 10 of the first 24 games, averaging 13.6 minutes.

Russell Westbrook, $3.3 million and Christian Braun, $3.1 million: Eligible to be traded, but the Nuggets desperately need quality rotation players on affordable contracts. In Braun (starter) and Westbrook (sixth man), they have precisely that for at least this season and next.

In other words, if the Nuggets want to acquire anyone expensive enough to definitively improve their rotation, Porter is the only player with both a suitable contract and clear trade value. Skepticism about his injury history is justified, but his back surgeries are also increasingly a thing of the past. Since the start of last season, Porter has played in 117 of 118 games, including the playoffs. He’s averaging 18.5 points (his best output in four years), 7.1 rebounds and a career-high 2.8 assists while shooting 51% from the floor. He leads the team in total minutes played this season.

The Nuggets aren’t eager to trade the 26-year-old Porter, but they understand the reality of the situation is that he would have to be involved in certain deals. His combination of shooting and length has been essential to the success of Denver’s starting lineup. The Nuggets had extension talks with him early this season, one source told The Post, confirming a report from The Athletic.

How would a Zach LaVine trade work?

Porter’s current contract could be used in a couple of different ways, one being to acquire multiple players with smaller salaries, the other being to go big-game hunting. The Nuggets briefly discussed the possibility of going after Paul George last summer, a deal that would have required Porter’s salary to be aggregated with Nnaji’s. That same combination would likely be necessary to complete a trade for Bulls guard Zach LaVine, whose 2024-25 salary is $43 million with two remaining years. The Nuggets have kicked the tires on LaVine, among other scoring guards and wings, sources confirmed to The Post this week.

But the 29-year-old represents the type of acquisition who would shake up a starting lineup that Denver is not sure needs to be shaken up yet.

He’s having a resurgent season, but his trade value around the league remains reportedly low. He played in only 25 games in 2023-24, which was his worst scoring season since 2017-18. If the market is dry, the Bulls may have to make concessions, such as taking on Nnaji’s contract, in order to get a 3-years-younger player in Porter. The Nuggets could make their own concessions to get off Nnaji’s contract. Draft capital is minimal. Their 2031 first-round pick is available, but even that is bogged down by pick protections involving a first-rounder owed to Oklahoma City. Parting with the pick would be dicey.

From a basketball standpoint? Exchanging Porter for LaVine would sacrifice positional size, rebounding and lineup continuity. But it would add a source of shot creation off-the-dribble, which could be valuable to the Nuggets if they hope to alleviate their dependence on Jokic by the playoffs. The three-time MVP is averaging career-highs in both scoring and assists. LaVine is a talented isolation scorer who could present a solution to Jokic’s rest minutes, and he could be the latest example of a player to benefit from playing alongside the Serbian center. He’s already averaging 21.7 points this season and shooting 42.8% on high 3-point volume. Denver has past connections to him on the coaching staff. Ryan Saunders overlapped with him in Minnesota during the first three years of LaVine’s career.

Still, meddling with a proven core is risky. Denver’s starting lineup has a 13.0 net rating. And the Nuggets have been encouraged by a string of consecutive wins and a recent uptick in production from Murray. In his first nine games this season, he averaged 17.3 points, 5.4 assists and shot 30.2% from the 3-point line. In 10 games since, he’s averaging 19.4 points and 6.6 assists while shooting 39% from three.

Other trade partners?

Particularly in the East, there are plenty of middling or bad teams that could be viable trade partners. Atlanta has several players and contracts that would make sense in Denver, including De’Andre Hunter, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Larry Nance Jr. and Onyeka Okongwu. Brooklyn’s Cam Johnson has obvious appeal and figures to be a popular target among contenders. LaVine aside, Chicago (helmed by former Nuggets GM Arturas Karnisovas) has intriguing bench pieces such as Ayo Dosunmu.

If the Nuggets want to make a depth-oriented move that doesn’t involve Porter, their best bet is probably to package Nnaji with one or more of their rookie contracts, like Hunter Tyson, Jalen Pickett or — most valuable among them — Julian Strawther. Perimeter defense, reliable 3-point shooting and frontcourt depth are all traits Denver could benefit from acquiring.

Nnaji might be a tough sell. The argument in favor of giving the 23-year-old a fresh start is based on a combination of physical tools and recent precedent. Multiple other big men have departed Denver and gone on to thrive with other organizations — Isaiah Hartenstein in OKC, Jusuf Nurkic in Phoenix, Jay Huff in Memphis this year.

Whatever the Nuggets decide to do with their limited options, the one thing they still have is time. The next month of basketball may determine a lot.

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Denver is on the cusp of getting its first professional women’s sports team since the late 1990s.

The National Women’s Soccer League is in the closing stages of adding Denver as the league’s 16th franchise, a source close to the negotiations confirmed to The Denver Post on Tuesday.

The winning bid group, publicly known as “For Denver FC,” beat out fellow finalists cities Cincinnati and Cleveland to secure the expansion franchise. The team would begin play in the 2026 season along with the new team in Boston. The news was first reported by Sportico.

For Denver FC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

While an announcement from the league is not imminent, Sportico reported “nothing is finalized, and it could still take weeks, or months, to hammer out a signed agreement,” sources said.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the negotiations are not yet complete, said talks to add Denver to the league are in the final stages. Elsewhere Tuesday, the Cleveland Pro Soccer Group put out a statement confirming it won’t be the NWSL’s 16th team.

Both Sportico and The Athletic reported that the expansion fee would be in the range of $105 million to $120 million, which would more than double what BOS Nation FC and Bay FC paid ($53 million) in 2023.

Last month, For Denver FC told Sports Business Journal that it had plans to build its own soccer-specific stadium and training facility, but that it would initially start the 2026 season in a temporary venue. The group has not said where the stadium would be located.

Denver is the largest American city without a professional women’s sports team and has been without a team since the Colorado Xplosion, which played in the American Basketball League from 1996-1998, disbanded.

“For Denver FC” launched its bid to get an NWSL franchise in July 2023 at the start of the FIFA Women’s World Cup. Colorado players in the league shared their support on social media, with United States National Team captain and Golden native Lindsey Horan posting a video message.

Since then, the group has put on watch parties at bars across the city and built up the brand through grassroots efforts.

The group’s most well-recognized figure is Jordan Angeli, a former NWSL player from Lakewood who later became the Colorado Rapids’ Apple TV personality and a color commentator for the NWSL. Also in the group are Ben Hubbard, the CEO of insurer Parsyl and a former administration official in the Obama presidency; Phos CEO Nicole Glaros; and Tom Dunmore, formerly of Major League Cricket and now VP of marketing for The Snow League. Dunmore has experience launching teams in the past with USL Championship side Indy Eleven.

The group’s lead investor is Rob Cohen, the CEO of IMA Financial Group, who co-led the city’s attempt to get a WNBA franchise in the league’s most recent round of expansion — an effort that ultimately was unsuccessful.

The NWSL has expanded its footprint considerably over the last few seasons, adding four teams since 2021. Cities added over the years include Louisville, Los Angeles, San Diego and the Bay Area. Original hubs in Kansas City (2021) and Utah (2024) also made a return, and Boston is set to join in 2026.

Colorado has been home to one of the nation’s strongest pockets of women’s soccer talent in the country. That dates back to the 1990s when April Heinrichs led the first USWNT at a World Cup and has continued through present day.

There are currently 16 Coloradans playing in the league. Plenty are already household names in the Front Range sporting landscape, including USWNT stars Horan, Mallory Swanson (Highlands Ranch) and Sophia Smith (Windsor). Former Real Colorado head coach Lorne Donaldson, who led the Real Colorado youth soccer giant for years and helped develop national team products and NWSL players alike, recently completed his first season as head coach of the Chicago Stars.

There will be significant changes ahead of the league’s 12th season in 2025, including the elimination of the draft, which had a Coloradan drafted every single year it had existed.

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In a season that has already been overstuffed with theatrics, the Nuggets saved perhaps their most dramatic finish yet for the most dedicated viewers, escaping Sacramento after dark with a 130-129 win.

Denver blew a 23-point lead and then overcame a 10-point deficit in the last 4:10. There were seven lead changes in the last 75 seconds, culminating with Jamal Murray’s game-winning midrange jumper with eight seconds to go.

Murray’s magic trick

Murray’s uncanny ability to transform awful individual performances into clutch heat checks and game-winning shots is one of life’s great mysteries. He pulled it off again in Sacramento, scoring 15 of his team-leading 28 points in the fourth. Late in the third, he had disappeared gingerly to the locker room for a brief stint before checking back in. Just three days earlier, he revealed that he’s been dealing with plantar fasciitis in addition to a hamstring injury that sidelined him recently.

Denver’s two-man game took over in the final minute. Murray scored in the paint with 52 seconds left to take a 125-124 lead, assisted Nikola Jokic’s only made 3-pointer with 31 seconds left to reclaim a 128-127 advantage, then slithered around a Jokic screen from the left wing on the last possession to get to his step-back.

The point guard made his last five shots after starting the game 6 for 21 from the field. Nine of his points came in the last 4:10, during the decisive 21-10 run.

Murray is slowly inching his stats back up. After leading the Nuggets in scoring back-to-back games, he’s averaging 18.4 points (within 0.1 of Michael Porter Jr.) and shooting 34.8% from 3. Those numbers looked much worse at the beginning of December.

Breakneck pace, defense optional

The Nuggets have a transition defense problem that’s much bigger than one game. But this one encapsulated it appropriately.

In a game that was officiated inconsistently and executed sloppily, the Kings thrived on chaos more. They scored 30 fast break points, many of them uncontested as the Nuggets didn’t run back after turnovers. Denver is allowing 18.2 transition points per game, the fourth-most in the league.

The Nuggets allowed 47 points in the second quarter alone to undo their clinical start. They committed weak shooting fouls on layups and jumpers several times. In the last three minutes, De’Aaron Fox started running through the entire Denver defense for easy baskets.

All five Sacramento starters were in double figures at halftime, while Jokic was the lowest-scoring starter for either team, strangely reluctant to return the favor after Domantas Sabonis frequently rammed into him in the post. The Kings came back in the blink of an eye with physicality and speed. When Jokic played in drop coverage, he couldn’t do anything to slow down Sacramento’s momentum. But the Nuggets went to a zone late, and it threw off Sacramento just enough times.

Fox finished with 29 points. Sabonis went for 28, in addition to 14 rebounds and six assists. DeMar DeRozan drove past Jokic for an easy go-ahead baseline dunk in the last minute. But as the last five seconds ran down, he dropped a pass from Sabonis in the dunker spot, forcing himself into a tougher fadeaway look at the buzzer. It was the first possession to end empty-handed for either team since Sacramento’s turnover at the 1:35 mark.

With Braun out, Westbrook starts

Christian Braun was ruled out an hour before opening tip with a lower back strain, ending a streak of 122 consecutive games played for the 23-year-old guard. That included playoff games. The last time he didn’t appear in a game was May 22, 2023, in Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals against the Lakers. Braun now has eight DNPs in his three-year career. He had played in 153 of the last 154 games before Monday.

His first absence of the season created a new lineup scenario for Michael Malone to navigate, with Julian Strawther, Russell Westbrook and Peyton Watson each presenting viable options. Malone went with experience, playing Westbrook and Jamal Murray in a starting five together for the first time. Westbrook had a productive game, amassing an efficient 18 points, nine rebounds, 10 assists and three steals.

But to start him is to ask a lot of Murray as a 3-point shooter, and Murray has not shot the ball well this year. Through three quarters, the two guards had combined for one made 3-pointer, and the Nuggets were feeling the effects of that. Westbrook was 0 for 3.

But in a moment of restraint and maturity, he stopped himself from trying a fourth 3-pointer with 1:20 left, instead feeding Jokic at the foul line. The center scored an easy floater to give Denver the lead and set up the back-and-forth ending. (Jokic, in a footnote game individually, ended up with 20 points, 14 boards, 13 assists and three steals.)

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When Julian Strawther led the NBA in total scoring this preseason, the list of past leaders he joined included some surprisingly good company.

Yes, preseason basketball tends to be a stage for bench players and recent draft picks, while starters play limited minutes to avoid injury risk. Even so, Kevin Durant, James Harden, Devin Booker, Ja Morant and Blake Griffin are among the stars who have amassed the most total points in a preseason. That’s just within the last decade.

Strawther’s 94 points in five exhibitions offered an optimistic glimpse at his potential in Denver. And the second-year guard out of Gonzaga has followed through with efficient shooting so far this year, including 39.7% from the 3-point line — a 10% jump from his rookie season.

Now the Nuggets simply need to capitalize on that improvement more often.

Strawther’s scoring impact has remained inconsistent with the second unit, mostly because his involvement in the offense has fluctuated on a game-to-game basis. But entering Monday’s matchup against the Sacramento Kings, he had scored double-digit points in three consecutive games, the longest such streak of his career. Nuggets coach Michael Malone hopes they can make that more of a trend — in seven of the previous eight games, Strawther had been contained to single digits.

“It gives us a boost. It gives us a guy off the bench that you can play through and run plays for,” Malone said last week. “His catch-and-shoot ability, the 3-point line. We have a lot of guys that — we all talk about, well, we have to shoot more 3s. Part of us not shooting 3s recently is Nikola (Jokic)’s dominance. Nikola’s just dominating inside the two. But Jamal (Murray) can shoot more. Michael (Porter Jr.) can shoot more. Nikola can shoot more. And Julian can shoot more. He’s taking four a game at a really healthy clip. Let’s get that number up to six, six-and-a-half 3s per game.”

It’s an ambitious goal that would require considerable change to achieve. Strawther attempted six or fewer total field goals — not just 3-pointers — in 13 of Denver’s first 23 games this season. His average 3-point attempts were down to 3.4 as of Monday.

But in the six games he has attempted nine or more shots, his efficiency has held up against the higher volume. Strawther is 41.2% from three in those games while mixing in a balanced diet of shots by attacking close-outs, getting to his floater (the other shot he’s most comfortable with), and running in transition.

“I feel like in that second unit, he’s such a talented scorer, and I feel like we can be doing more to try and get him going,” Porter said. “I feel like we need him off the bench to put the ball in the hoop. He’s one of our only volume 3-point shooters. So I feel like just as a team, as players, as coaches, we can try to get him going a little bit more.”

Part of the responsibility will also be on Strawther. He needs to avoid getting played off the floor at the defensive end, where Malone has intentionally been tough on him this season. Why? When Malone watches Strawther off-ball, he sees promise.

But if opponents do everything in their power to force the 22-year-old to guard on-ball, that won’t matter. The Nuggets have a 116.1 defensive rating this season with Strawther on the floor. It’s 108.0 without him.

“One-on-one (needs to improve). He’s a really good team defender. He understands the game. He understands our gameplan, where he needs to be in terms of our five-on-five team defense,” Malone said. “But for Julian, and he’s not the only one, his one-on-one defense — he’s gotta take more pride on that end of the floor, guarding his man. Have more discipline. Not fouling jump shooters. And I’ve seen him do it. I know he’s capable. He’s a young player, but if he can make a jump in terms of his one-on-one, that’s going to help him and help us out tremendously.”

The Nuggets tackled their awkwardly long gap in the schedule this week by traveling back in time.

How far? Depends on who you ask.

Michael Malone felt the team’s recent rebounding woes warranted a rewind to the preseason. But Julian Strawther was thinking in years, not months.

“It was like a little throwback to middle school,” Strawther said after Denver’s 120-98 win over the Clippers. “Go find your guy. Box out. But I mean, it’s what we needed.”

At the one-quarter mark of their regular season, the Nuggets needed to hammer home some fundamentals.

“We’ve been doing rebounding drills in practice,” Malone said. “It’s like we’ve been having, like, ‘Back to Bataan.’ Like, let’s have a training camp practice. So the guys bought into it.”

Whatever obscure reference Malone was attempting to make, seemingly from the 1945 John Wayne film “Back to Bataan,” there’s no chance any of his players are old enough to understand it. But they all understand the language of rudimentary basketball drills. They simply needed a reminder. With four days off between games this week, they got one.

“Go find somebody. Hit somebody. Stop ball-watching,” the 10th-year coach said. “… The ball will be flying around, a coach will shoot it, and you’ve gotta find a guy that’s crashing to the glass. And just try to build that muscle memory of hitting somebody. Turning and finding and hitting somebody.”

The response was a 46-31 rebounding advantage over the Clippers. The Nuggets only allowed five offensive boards Friday.

It wasn’t merely that Denver (13-10) had allowed 34 combined offensive rebounds in its last two games. (That may have been a breaking point for Malone, though.) Seizing defensive rebounds in particular has been a deeper problem, one that’s impacting the math of every game.

In their previous 16 contests before Friday, the Nuggets were averaging 88 field goal attempts but allowing 94. They only out-attempted their opponent in two of those 16 games — by two shots each time. In the other 14, they were out-attempted by 10 or more shots in five games.

“We’re trying to play good defense. So to finish that off with a rebound is important because if not, teams are getting dagger 3s on us,” Michael Porter Jr. said. “Getting a lot of second-chance points.”

Indeed, the Nuggets also rank fifth-worst in the NBA at allowing second-chance points (15 per game). They are 21st in defensive rebounding rate. This is all in spite of a starting center who’s the second-best rebounder in the league statistically.

So, back to basics, then. Porter said he hadn’t ever done rebounding drills in December of an NBA season before this, “but I think that’s going to be important for us.” Peyton Watson described the scene in practice as “intense.” To him, it was one example of a collective display of accountability that Denver needed in practice.

“We definitely had a hard week of just self-reflection,” he said, “looking at ourselves and asking, ‘What can we do better to be a better ball club?'”

Starting better would help, everyone agreed. The Nuggets are 8-0 this season when they lead after the first quarter, including Friday, but the fact that they’ve only led eight times is the most notable part of that stat. Sluggishness before being incentivized to play hard by a double-digit deficit has been a trend all season, one that players and coaches testify comes down to effort.

“I can tell when we’re going through warmups,” Porter said. “I can’t really tell too much going through walk-through, or the vibe in the locker room. But I can tell sometimes when we get out there and we’re warming up how guys’ energy feels, if we’re excited to play a game or not. I think that’s when I can tell.”

Rock bottom was last Saturday in Washington, where the Wizards ended their 16-game losing streak against Denver by leading the entire game.

Rebounding, of course, often is a matter of effort as well. After that loss, a seething Malone criticized his team for not anticipating long rebounds on long shots. That was a lesson he had learned while playing Catholic Youth Organization basketball.

As the Nuggets learned a few days later, they’ll never be too old to require a return to their youth in the practice gym every once in a while.

“At the end of the day, it’s all about basketball and how can you win games,” Strawther said. “And back in the day, you’ve gotta do some rebounding drills if you’re not rebounding well. Same thing applies here.”

Nuggets point guard Jamal Murray is dealing with plantar fasciitis, he said Friday night.

Murray, 27, returned from an injury that was officially designated as right hamstring inflammation to score 20 points in Denver’s win over the Clippers. He had missed the last two games and was a partial participant in the team’s practice on Wednesday.

The hamstring pain was not his only injury, though, he revealed after also amassing four steals.

“I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel going into the game,” Murray said when asked about his hamstring. “I didn’t know how many minutes I was going to play. I just kind of went out there and said, ‘I’m gonna give it what I’ve got.’ Fresh legs. Had energy. Feel good now. Some plantar fasciitis. Everybody’s going through something. But I’m good, man. Excited to be back.”

Murray is averaging 17.9 points, 4.1 rebounds and 6.1 assists per game this season. He’s having his least efficient season so far since he was a rookie, shooting 42.5% from the field and 33.7% from the 3-point line. But in the last nine games that he’s played, the numbers have gradually improved. He’s 37.3% from three in that stretch.

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A game that wasn’t on the schedule two weeks ago could maybe — just maybe — end up being one of the most impactful results of the Nuggets’ season.

After getting eliminated from the NBA Cup in the group stage, they needed to be scheduled for two make-up games in December. One of those was Friday night’s 120-98 win over the Clippers at Ball Arena.

The original 2024-25 NBA calendar featured three matchups between the Nuggets and Clippers — two of them at altitude. The first two meetings were already losses for Denver, meaning Los Angeles had clinched a hypothetical tiebreaker in the standings. Until this new development. Now, the Nuggets (13-10) have a chance to escape the season series with a 2-2 tie despite a skewed home-court advantage in the four matchups.

“The league gave us a gift,” coach Michael Malone acknowledged before the game. “It’s up to us if we want to take advantage of that gift.”

Denver did, with a dominant second half. Jamal Murray led the team with 20 points after missing the last two games with a hamstring injury. Michael Porter Jr. scored 12 of 17 in the last eight minutes of the third quarter, while Denver was building a 14-point lead. And Nikola Jokic didn’t have to play in the fourth, thanks to a jolt of scoring from Peyton Watson and Julian Strawther and defense from Russell Westbrook. The MVP center followed his 104-point back-to-back with 16 points, seven rebounds and two assists.

He played just shy of 30 minutes.

James Harden and Norman Powell, who eviscerated Denver in the last two matchups, combined for 31 points on 28 shots. Denver forced 19 turnovers to cancel out 21 giveaways at the offensive end.

Playing their only home game in a 19-day stretch, the Nuggets logged consecutive wins for the first time in more than a month. They are 8-0 this season when they lead after the first quarter.

They also won the first half for only the sixth time in 23 games this season, but the way they pulled it off was about as peculiar as they could’ve drawn it up. They committed 14 turnovers, giving Los Angeles 18 points, shot 3-for-15 from beyond the arc and had zero double-digit scorers at the break. They surrendered an 18-0 run in the middle of the second quarter, going 4 minutes, 54 seconds without a point and 5:32 without a field goal.

Even weirder: Most of that drought occurred with Jokic on the floor. He attempted only four shots in the half, and one of them was determined by his computer programming. On a sideline out of bounds play with 31 seconds left, he caught at the top of the key and immediately released, trying to engineer two possessions out of the situation. He made the three, then the Clippers coughed it up to give Christian Braun an easy dunk. Mission accomplished. The 5-0 burst was enough for a 48-47 lead.

Jokic’s six rest minutes almost added to the backwardness of the half. Almost. With Murray staggering and Westbrook lobbing to DeAndre Jordan, the Nuggets in control for the majority of the stint, until the last 45 seconds. The Clippers hadn’t taken advantage of Denver’s turnovers yet — but they did just in time. With their own 5-0 mini-run, the non-Jokic minutes ended in a tie. Alas, man’s search for meaning continued. There might have been a breakthrough in the fourth quarter.

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