The Denver Nuggets home opener against the New Orleans Pelicans was supposed to be a straightforward opportunity to collect the first win of the season.
It became much more than that by the end of the night, and tensions ran high throughout Ball Arena as a result.
The Nuggets defeated the Pelicans 141-135 in what became an overtime thriller. Denver completed a 23-point comeback, headlined by the contributions of three players: Jamal Murray, Nikola Jokic, and Trevon Brazile.
Murray was tremendous with 42 points and 6 assists, shooting an impressive 8-of-16 from three-point range and willing the Nuggets back into this game. It was a strong bounce back from Murray after a poor season opener in Oklahoma City, and Murray showed his capability when given an opportunity to get free against an opponent like New Orleans.
It wasn’t just his scoring that kept Denver in the game though. It was his frustration, voicing that emotion in Nuggets huddles and on the bench while keeping everyone motivated.
“Sometimes his frustration energy is positive for everybody else,” head coach David Adelman shared postgame, “because he says what he actually thinks.”
Nikola Jokic put up an impressive stat line with 35 points, 15 rebounds, 10 assists, 2 steals, and 3 blocks. His intensity ratcheted up in the second half, particularly in the fourth quarter and overtime. That manifested on both ends of the floor, contesting shots more consistently, hitting threes, setting up teammates, and dominating the glass. That takeover gene was clearly still present in a moment desperately needed it to be there.
Rookie Trevon Brazile also stepped up in a particular way, playing about 19 minutes in a row to end the game, including the full overtime period. Brazile accumulated 17 points, 9 rebounds, and 2 blocks, putting that youthful athleticism and audacity to great use by skying for contested rebounds and perimeter contests. He also hit three clutch three-pointers in the fourth quarter and overtime, stepping up right when he was needed.
“He was such a high-impact guy,” Adelman shared of Brazile’s night. “The first half, he made some mistakes off-ball. You’re gonna do that when you’re a rookie with all these different actions he hasn’t seen. But he stays with it.”
“And the biggest compliment you can give a guy that’s a rookie in our league is that the veterans on his team trust him.”
Brazile has earned that trust over a short period of time, playing with high energy and intensity while going about things in the correct way. He stays active rather than floating and waiting for things to happen. That’s something the Nuggets needed in their comeback effort desperately.
Those three, along with select contributions throughout the night, helped propel the Nuggets to a desperately needed victory.
Because earlier in the night, the boos were raining down without any hesitation.
Denver needed a great comeback in this game because they suffered a major setback, going down by as many as 23 points in the third quarter.
“I didn’t expect our team to come out the way they did. We were dismal in the first half,” Adelman emphasized. He isn’t shying away from Denver’s struggles, later identifying that Denver’s defense got more aggressive and flew around more consistently.
“[We] got out of the basic system, just really tried to attack the ball. And when you do that, it’s not the guys on the ball. It’s the guys behind them. They’re allowed to be a lot more aggressive.”
But it wasn’t until Denver got more aggressive that the boos stopped. Before then, the fans in Ball Arena grew very restless and very frustrated about Denver’s effort and execution level. On a night against the New Orleans Pelicans that should be a celebration of basketball back at Ball Arena, fans were more concerned with the intensity levels, and for good reason.
The players, by and large, were taken aback by this reaction postgame. There was frustration voiced in the locker room, frustration voiced in interviews, but no comment was more blunt than Denver’s franchise leader in Nikola Jokic.
“We got booed in the first home game. And I think those fans who do that, they don’t need to come anymore. Because if you guys follow us, you know that we never quit, and we came back from much more difficult situations.”
“So, if you ask me, they’re not welcome anymore.”
That’s a serious statement to make, and there was no ambiguity about Jokic’s tone toward the subject when he doubled down.
“Like I said, they should support us.”
The players give so much to this game, to this organization. Jokic and Murray both seemed especially frustrated by the reaction of the fans. Murray ended up with 42 points, while Jokic ended up with a 35-point triple-double, both of which are obviously extremely hard to accomplish and appear fairly thankless in the face of a booing crowd.
However, there seems to be a disconnect between the players and fan base in terms of the urgency needed to display this year. Fans still remember the playoffs last season going as poorly as they did. They want to know, and to believe, that last year isn’t this year, that the players are fully committed to making the changes necessary to be the best team they can be. Given the focus on effort and intensity levels, the fans certainly didn’t appreciate what they presumed to be a poor effort.
It’s a long season. The Nuggets are already scrambling at small forward to find the right fit next to their starters after Cam Johnson sprained his ankle on opening night. Bryce Hopkins got the start on Saturday night, and the Nuggets played minutes with DeMar DeRozan and Cam Whitmore at small forward before ultimately finding the Trevon Brazile-Aaron Gordon forward combo.
Despite the injuries though, the fans still want to see success and high level execution. They want to know the players aren’t accepting of last season’s result. They want to believe the group can do the same things they did en route to the 2023 NBA championship, the first in franchise history.
Booing on night number one at home showed a clear delineation from that for some fans. For other fans, the team will never be booed nor should be booed. They should always be supported with positivity and uplifting encouragement rather than voiced displeasure.
It will be interesting to see if this is a one-time event, if booing at home happens again in the future, and what the response is from the players.
Because a significant part of the fan base showed their restlessness in this home opener, and that feeling isn’t going away after one win in October against the New Orleans Pelicans.
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