Michael Malone called him the “MVP of the game.” Watching it unfold Thursday, it was hard to believe that as recently as four months ago, Rodney Hood was a middling player on one of the NBA’s worst teams. In February, Cleveland traded him to Portland for Nik Stauskas, a fringe rotation player, Wade Baldwin IV, currently teamless, and a pair…...

Which one? Pretend you’re grading two of Jamal Murray’s toughest postseason buckets like this is the Dunk Contest. One through 10 scale. Please hold up the appropriate number after each clip. First: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts2lkoG_qkY Second: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwxTs4OpYPs They’re probably both 10s right? It’s hard to ding these bottle rockets that touched only nylon on the way down. If you’re factoring in stakes,…

In the second quarter, Jamal Murray stood on the right side of the floor and sized up his prey. Murray was cooking by that point, getting all sorts of leaners and runners from awkward angles to go down. Murray jab stepped, rose up and fired a 3 in Damian Lillard’s face. It fell through the net, one of the final…...

PORTLAND — First, the Nuggets were an easy target because of him. “When you talk to teams in the West, they don’t fear the Nuggets,” ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said in March. “… What people will say is that their best player, which is (Nikola) Jokic, is more neutralizable in a playoff setting than a guy like Durant or Curry or…...

PORTLAND — Where do you even start? There are a million different entry points into whatever that was on Friday night at the Moda Center in Portland. So much happened, Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts could barely recall specifics. “I have no idea what happened in the first half or the second half or the first three overtimes,” said Stotts…...

PORTLAND — The game was getting away from the Nuggets in the third quarter. Thanks to some more cold shooting on par with Denver’s Game 2 performance, the Trail Blazers stretched their to as many as 10 points. Then Nikola Jokic took over. Denver’s star big man started to cook immediately out of a timeout. He had it going inside…...

Brick by brick, the boos started to trickle out. With three minutes remaining in the first half, Nikola Jokic whipped a pass to a wide-open Malik Beasley at the top of the arc. Beasley set and fired his belongs-in-an-instructional-video jumper, but the shot glanced off the front rim. On Denver’s next time down the floor, Beasley barreled into the lane,…...

If certain parts of Game 7 between the Nuggets and Spurs “set basketball back” for the lack of shotmaking, as Gregg Popovich put it Saturday, Denver’s second-round opener against Portland on Monday showed what makes the modern game great: so much skill everywhere. The Nuggets and Trail Blazers both came out firing; each shot 52% in the first half. Denver,…...

Fourteen days and 16 feet were the difference between dejection and elation in the first postseason series of Jamal Murray’s career. In Denver’s first-round date against San Antonio, that was how much time went by between Game 1 and Game 7, and how much space separates the right elbow from the left elbow. Go back to April 13: Murray clanged…...

Melodrama. The second-leading scorer on their most successful regular-season team ever shredding his knee two weeks before the playoffs. Waving goodbye to the reigning Executive of the Year. Firing the reigning Coach of the Year. Following along on social media as their star player smoked hookah and declared his days in Denver were numbered on draft night as they chose…...

To help you hear what we hear, BSN Denver is uploading uncut audio after Nuggets game this season. Here’s what Michael Malone, Mason Plumlee, Monte Morris and Nikola Jokic said following a 120-103 Game 6 loss in San Antonio on Thursday. Michael Malone Mason Plumlee Monte Morris Nikola Jokic...

SAN ANTONIO — Early in the third quarter, Jamal Murray crumpled to the ground and took his time getting back up. Denver’s starting point guard was trying to navigate around a Jakob Poeltl ball screen but lost his balance after Poeltl jutted out his leg and caught Murray in the left thigh. Murray rolled around in obvious discomfort. He stayed…...

SAN ANTONIO — Nikola Jokic came to play in the first closeout game of his career. The Nuggets’ star center was in one of those zones where you could blindfold him 10 feet from the hoop, spin him around three times and he’d still find a way to flip in the shot. Jokic was brilliant in Game 6 Thursday, but…...

The Denver Nuggets’ point guard is their center, and their center is their point guard. OK, that’s painting with too broad a brush, but at certain points this season, the responsibilities Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic have as ball handler and big man have blurred. Late in the second quarter of Tuesday’s Game 5 win, Murray shot up from the…...

Derrick White shredded Denver’s defense like a chainsaw to a row of shrubs in Game 3. The Colorado kid scored 36 points almost exclusively on drives to the rim as the Spurs seized control of the series. Afterward, a frustrated Michael Malone likened his team to an admittance crew. “We looked like a bunch of ticket takers,” Malone said. “Take…...

To help you hear what we hear, BSN Denver is uploading uncut audio after Nuggets games this season. Here’s what was said by Michael Malone, Torrey Craig, Jamal Murray, Nikola Jokic, Paul Millsap and Will Barton following the Nuggets’ 117-103 Game 4 win in San Antonio. Michael Malone Torrey Craig and Jamal Murray Nikola Jokic Paul Millsap...

SAN ANTONIO — The last time the Nuggets won in San Antonio prior to Saturday night, Jamal Murray was a freshman in high school and Torrey Craig was a sophomore at South Carolina-Upstate. “Shoutout to Upstate by the way,” said Craig after stepping into the starting lineup and drilling five 3s in the Nuggets’ series-evening 117-103 win. “Go Spartans.” Nikola…...

SAN ANTONIO — The shots are finally falling. In Game 1, 3-point shooting doomed the Nuggets as they lost home-court advantage. They’ve progressively gotten better on the offensive end, though, and in Game 4, they buried the Spurs under an avalanche of 3s. Torrey Craig hit five deep balls, and Jamal Murray and Will Barton hit three a piece as Denver…...

SAN ANTONIO — The Nuggets are mulling a change to their starting lineup. After getting worked 118-108 in Game 3 — a final score that wasn’t indicative of the beatdown the Spurs put on them as the second half wore on — Michael Malone said Friday he is considering some tweaks to give Denver a chance to even the series…...