LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – The Nuggets’ bubble is going to burst. Their defense succeeds only as an exercise in social distancing. Injured starter Will Barton has gone house. Along with his teammates behaved like they didn’t want to be here during a distressing 124-105 playoff loss to Utah on Wednesday.

“We could ’t be afraid to look in the mirror and see why we lost,” Denver coach Michael Malone explained.

The person requiring profound reflection is Malone. He’s paid to create decisions. It’s no time to seat veteran forward Paul Millsap, that was $30 million of fat since Denver came in Florida over a month ago.

Add Jerami Grant from the lineup.

Yes, Malone will be enticed to stay the program. But just as he benched a struggling Barton so as to endure a first-round scare from San Antonio a year Malone must contemplate a lineup change again.

“We’re not going to fear after a loss,” Malone insisted.

Panic? There’s no need.

But if Denver wants to avoid a first-round upset, something’s got to change in a significant way. And pronto.

Together with all the best-of-seven series tied 1-1 but momentum shamelessly making goo-goo eyes in the Jazz, it’s long past time to get the Denver front office to flush foolish pride down exactly the exact same drain where Tim Connelly tossed a three-quarter deal (for the absurd amount of $90 million) into Millsap.

Using a program on my mobile phone revealing test results that proved me to be COVID-free, I was granted admission to be an eye-witness from the NBA bubble. Know one of the most striking points about the Hoops House of the Mouse in the Disney campus?

Everything, from fans on monitors into a camera mounted onto a track chugging up and down the sideline is meticulously assembled, with technological artistry to impress Elon Musk. But …

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Games here feel like theyrsquo;re being staged on the pair of a TV game show than inside an arena where you can smell both the beer breath along with the fire of tens of thousands of fans.

Why is this significant?

Despite the team ’s best efforts to pump up the volume using an infinite playlist of party tunes played along with canned crowd noise, it’s almost eerie how a losing group stews in silence for a game slides off.

“We have to get on each other longer. We’ve got to keep up the energy,” Nuggets guard Jamal Murray explained. ”I really feel like we got flat, especially that quarter. ”

Kim Klement-Pool, Getty ImagesPaul Millsap is congratulated by center Nikola Jokic #15 and guard Jamal Murray #27 Denver Nuggets from the Utah Jazz during the first half of game two in the first round of the 2020 NBA Playoffs in AdventHealth Arena in the ESPN Wide World Of Sports Complex on Aug. 19, 2020 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

Since the days after George Mikan and basketball dinosaurs roamed the world, there’s been a trend for a group that wins the playoff series-opener to unwind and be rocked by the intense desperation of its foe in Game 2.

This ’s exactly what occurred on this sunny Florida afternoon, when the Nuggets couldn’t muster without the uplifting sound of Pepsi Center, which they missed almost up to Barton. He’s decided following weeks of neglecting to acquire an aching knee healthful to leave the bubble and seek rehab that was more concentrated elsewhere.

Denver fans are as loud and proud as everywhere in America. Perhaps they might ’ve pulled the Nuggets from their funk, until the group got whacked with a 43-29 Utah hammer shot in the next quarter.

“We guarded rdquo, & no one; Malone harrumphed.

Well, you have to admire the Nuggets for being coronavirus aware and diligently staying at least 6 feet off whenever Donovan Mitchell, Joe Ingles or Jordan Clarkson launched a shot from beyond the 3-point arc. When Utah took an 81-62 guide with six minutes, 13 seconds, remaining in the next phase, the Jazz had been ridiculously accurate using all the 3-ball, which makes 16-of-29 attempts.

Denver is two injured starters, and in this time it’s likely wishful thinking to expect Gary Harris to donate much more to the origin than Barton, that sounds like he might be achieved to get the playoffs.

“For usit means we have to measure up,” stated Michael Porter Jr., who scored 28 points. “One of the players is out. If we would like to do things that are large out here, then it ’ s going to take a group effort and we going to have to step in a significant way. ”

Malone needs to reevaluate his rotation and quit hoping for a miracle from Millsap. He’s been awful for over a month, averaging a measly 8.3 points and 4.2 rebounds while shooting 43.3percent from the field.

Averaging 15.5 points in the bubble and considerably more adept at getting out to stress Utah’s 3-point attempts, shouldn’t integrating Grant in Millsap’s put be a no-brainer?

The nature of this loss stung. But it s time. “If we allow this stay with us going into Game 3, it will be more of the same,” Malone explained.

A hurting team cannot afford to get anything less than its own five players on the court.

Bench Millsap. Start Grant.

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