Cam Johnson needed a way to help pass the time.
His Brooklyn Nets were playing in Denver, but he was sidelined by an injury and unable to join the action. Naturally, he was a little bored.
“I’m sitting there arguing with fans the whole time,” he recalled.
This was Johnson’s last game in Denver as a visitor. Nuggets 124, Nets 105. Jan. 10. Since then, he’s been traded to the Nuggets for Michael Porter Jr., and on Tuesday, he played his first game at Ball Arena wearing the home uniform. He likes it better this way.
“It was over calls and stuff,” Johnson continued. “And I’m like, ‘Shut up, it’s not a foul.’ I’m not playing, so I’m messing with people. They’re ganging up, and they’re yelling, and there’s one guy who just kept yelling. … He’s right behind the bench, just wailing. I’m like, ‘Oh my God, go somewhere.'”
The memory is all in good fun. Needless to say, though: “It’s nice to have them backing me now,” Johnson said, laughing.
The Nuggets’ newest starter spent time signing a few autographs after he warmed up Tuesday, ingratiating himself with the fans with whom he once jousted. Then he amassed 11 points, three rebounds and two steals in 21 minutes as Denver defeated the Bulls 124-117, improving to 3-1 this preseason.
The real home opener will be Oct. 25 against Phoenix — a week from Saturday. But this Tuesday was closer and closer to a dress rehearsal, as Denver’s starters played into the second half of the team’s only home preseason game.
“It’s always funny when you go to a new team and you’re so used to playing them on the road side,” Johnson said. “Just to see what it’s like as the home team for that first time is always just very different. The arena feels different. It’s hard to explain. But it was fun. … Just funny how the feel is so different when you switch sides.”
Johnson is still trying to find his place in a lineup alongside four other players highly attuned to one another’s tendencies. His feel for movement and space seems calibrated already. An accurate sense of when to seek the ball is more elusive.
As a result, he’s been statistically pedestrian. Jamal Murray dropped 30 points in the win Tuesday. Nikola Jokic fell two rebounds and two assists shy of a triple-double in just 23 minutes. Aaron Gordon scored 17 points for the second straight game. Johnson has done most of his work off the ball, despite Denver’s desire to use him as a ball-handler. He’s been instinctively deferential throughout the acclimation process.
“I’m feeling out the movement of everything, you know? Where people go, where people look, things like that,” he said. “Where the passes come from. It’s a spacing thing. It’s a personnel thing. It’s just getting used to playing with the guys. So I feel good about the spots I’ve gotten shots out of. Maybe just finding other ways to be aggressive outside of that is probably more of my concern.”
As for his 5-of-16 start from 3-point range, Johnson and the Nuggets both have a mature perspective: “Nobody’s ever been exempt from that,” as he put it, “not even the best to ever do it.” Johnson has made 10 of his first 24 shots from the field in four exhibitions.
Most encouragingly on Tuesday, he knocked down a 3-pointer from a designed play out of Denver’s “horns” setup. Two players go to the corners, and two go to the high posts, forming a mini-triangle with the point guard at the top of the key. In this case, that was Gordon, who fed Jokic on the right elbow, then followed a screen from Johnson into the paint. Johnson popped out to receive a handoff from Jokic after setting the pick.
The shot was wide open. The fit in an action alongside Jokic and Gordon looked seamless.
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Johnson is slowly getting comfortable in Denver. He checked off one rite of passage by experiencing the grueling drive to and from the airport. He explored the local zoo. He’s drinking more electrolytes than usual while still figuring out the altitude — a growing pain for every new Colorado athlete.
And after picking up four fouls on Tuesday, he’s getting accustomed to the Ball Arena crowd taking his side.
“If there’s any negativity, I either forgot about it or it didn’t reach me all the way,” he said of the reception from the fan base. “So far, it’s been very, very positive.”
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