HOUSTON — The charter buses carrying the Denver Nuggets pulled up to the JW Marriott at 4:47 a.m. Sunday. Players, coaches and other team employees had checked out of their rooms on Saturday. Now they needed those rooms back. As they stumbled through the lobby, zombie-like, they encountered a surprised and confused team official.
He had just woken up. Early flight home. He was breaking off from the team’s traveling party and was about to get in a car to the airport.
As he was on his way out, the Nuggets were on their way back in.
Their first long road trip of the season had begun with an international debacle. Attempting to fly from Mexico City to Houston after a win on Saturday, they waited about six hours on the team plane, into the wee hours, only to be delivered back to the hotel after the aircraft’s problems proved insurmountable.
It all added up to a night of minimal sleep, a second long day of travel and a bit of injury report intrigue. All five starters and sixth man DeMar DeRozan were listed as questionable before Denver’s game Monday in Houston. Officially, they were all dealing with minor afflictions or “injury management” — not untrue — but the report might as well have said “questionable (sleep deprivation).”
“It was impossible not to think (about) our people that played the most minutes — that we should try to take care of them as best we can,” coach David Adelman said. “Take a look at what was gonna be the next few days. And I felt like out of fairness to everyone mentally, which could lead to physical problems, let’s get to shootaround and see where’s everybody’s at. I know when I woke up (Monday), I felt a certain way, so I figured they would as well.”
Despite those concerns, Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic played 39 minutes each in a 110-100 loss to the Rocketspushing past their already-alarming season averages.
“We’ve got guys that like to battle on this team,” a frustrated Aaron Gordon said after the loss. “We’ve got guys that like a challenge. We’ve got guys that don’t back down. So we didn’t want to take the easy way out. If one’s in, we’re all in.”
Specifically, if Murray is in, they’re all in. After the team finally landed in Houston, waited through a U.S. customs delay and checked into a new hotel Sunday night, Adelman sent a group text to Denver’s core players.
“I think you guys need to honestly have a conversation with yourselves and see where you’re at, physically, mentally,” he recalled saying.
“I don’t think anybody even batted an eye at the text. I know Jamal was the first one to speak up,” Christian Braun told The Denver Post. “But everybody kind of followed his lead. I don’t think anybody of the five or six that were in the group ever had any thought of not playing. We knew this was a big game. We understand where we’re at in the standings. … We understand the importance of this game and kind of seeing where we stack up.”
Both Adelman and Denver’s front office wanted to make sure to offer the starters and the 37-year-old DeRozan an opportunity to sit out in Houston. Another big game loomed Wednesday (6 p.m. MT) in Memphis, where the Grizzlies are off to a torrid start. But the players were adamant. Adelman still wanted them to go through a morning routine after a good night of sleep. Then they could confirm they felt good enough to play.
How bad could the delay have possibly been, though, to cause so much uncertainty?
Anyone who works for an NBA team lives a charmed life on the road, of course. Private jets. Luxury hotels. Catered meals.
But within that context, at least five people who work for the team described last weekend to The Denver Post as the worst travel saga they’ve experienced in the NBA. In part because of what happened before everything went wrong. The Nuggets were originally supposed to leave Mexico City on the same plane in which they arrived, but for reasons that remain unclear to many people within the organization, the Pacers were instructed to board that plane instead when they arrived at the airport. At roughly 9 p.m., the Nuggets boarded the plane that had flown their opponents into town two days earlier. Then a mechanical issue was discovered. Denver waited in the cabin, watching the Pacers take off.
Hours passed. Almost all of the players and coaches stayed awake, hanging out, waiting to sleep in the air, expecting an update. None came. Meanwhile, team travel coordinators started making calls to prepare for an emergency hotel booking. Just in case.
“I think for us, honestly, they did a really good job of catering to us and making sure we had the right things,” Braun said. “I think the equipment people and the (Altitude) media people, those guys really took the brunt of that travel situation.”
One problem led to another. The plane door got jammed about five hours into the wait, while a different part was being installed to fix the original issue. It became clear that Denver’s only option was to return to the hotel and try again Sunday. Everyone disembarked, then climbed on the charter buses, then settled in for the one-hour drive back into the city. Several people described an allotted sleep schedule lasting from about 5:30 a.m. to a little before noon.
“The sun came up. I know that,” Adelman said. “And then we had brunch, and an airplane landed at some point (for us). And the great country of Mexico, we got on a plane. Landed in Texas. Did some customs. So it was quite the experience. The great thing about the whole experience was we won the game (in Mexico City), so I felt good about that. And the city’s incredible. Just was a really tough logistics situation.”
“I mean, we are getting paid to play,” Jokic said when asked about the opportunity to rest Monday’s game. “I think there is no question.”
Nor was there any attempt to make excuses after the loss to Houston. The Nuggets fell to 5-4 overall and 1-4 against teams with winning records. Murray, fittingly, was their best player. He amassed 38 points at a 14-for-23 shooting clip and made several timely defensive plays during a 19-point comeback. Excluding him and Jokic, Denver’s other nine rotation players deployed by Adelman combined for 37 points on 12-for-39 shooting.
“Me and ‘Mal talk a lot about where we’re at in the standings,” Braun said. “… ‘Mal understands the moment, and he wants it bad. You can really see it. He wants to win. He’s playing to win. His defense has taken another step, I think, this year. He’s just a winning player.”
Gordon continued to struggle with a 1-for-6 shooting night and three turnovers, but he said afterward that physical limitations aren’t to blame for his slow start to the season.
“Physically, I feel good. So I’m less worried about my body out there and now more worried about the wins,” he said. “So I think that’ll go a long way. … I did a lot of recovery (this offseason) and a lot of lifting. A lot of running. Just so I can be there come May and June. But we need to pick it up now, or it’s gonna be a more difficult road then.”
That creeping sense of urgency was the theme in a disappointed Nuggets locker room. It was the reason they had shrugged off the jet-lag and elected to play in the first place, led by a determined Murray.
His scoring wasn’t enough in Houston. The heavy minutes were squandered.
The silver lining: This time, the Nuggets were staying overnight in Houston before flying to their next destination Tuesday. A full night of sleep awaited.
Want more Nuggets news? Sign up for the Nuggets Insider to get all our NBA analysis.
Source: www.denverpost.com
