Is this the tough street Denver must travel to acquire the NBA championship in franchise history? And did the street begin here, with a gritty, we-ain’t-pretty victory against Houston?

The boss stood out the locker room Wednesday night, delighted the Nuggets knocked The Beard on his keister and beat the Rockets using take-no-prisoners defense. And since the manager is a billionaire, maybe he should be listened to by us.

“You don’t even beat a team like Houston with air. The Rockets averaged 120 points each match. That’s a real win right there,” Stan Kroenke said.

The Nuggets were gnats in the beard of guard James Harden, limiting him while holding high-flying Houston to its lowest scoring output of the young season.

“They have blessed,” Harden sniffed.

Hey, Beard: Take that L to the way out.

Luck has nothing to do precisely the Nuggets’ 10-3 record. Denver paths only LeBron and the Lakeshow in the Western Conference standings.

Inside the Denver locker room, the team’s celebrity was pleased in his normal self-deprecating fashion. Center Nikola Jokic was delighted I noticed he softly matched the 27-point output signal of Harden, but looked confused just how he did it.

“Thank you, this ’s quite nice of you … It was actually silent, that’therefore I don’t recall ,” quipped Jokic, fighting to prove his statistical line wasn’t even some kind of accounting error by the official scorer. “Not too bad. It turned out to be a silent 27. ”

Wasn’t it people were asking if Jokic was disengaged, fat and miserable? As it turns out, the hand-wringing over the death of the MVP candidacy might have been a tad premature. From the group &rsquo game of the young season, Joker was sweet best: moving the ball and shuffling his feet with a sense of delight.

“He’s going to be him. I don’t know how to discuss it. He’s Nikola. At the day’s end, he’so planning to put up numbers similar to that. That’s only that he is,” said Nuggets teammate Will Barton, admiring Jokic’s stat lineup of 12 rebounds and four assists to go with those 27 points.

“I know a whole lot of folks were tough on him in the beginning of the season for not putting up the numbers but he’therefore a guy who reads the match. He’s smart and he’therefore are not going to drive anything. If he’s got a pass, then he’s definitely going to earn a pass. When he wants to score, then he’so definitely going to score. Like I told youit’so up into him. ”

Nuggets coach Michael Malone referred to the scrambling, slashing defense contrary to the Beard, that got dumped his rump as Denver’therefore Torrey Craig slammed a spin-o-rama dunk in the fourth quarter, even as the Harden Rules. This was an offering of respect to Houston’s superstar, as well as a tribute to the Jordan Rules that the Detroit Bad Boys employed to harass His Airness back.

“You have to have rules against James Harden. It’therefore the same grade participant,” Malone said. “We gave him looks. ”

In Year 5 of the Malone age, after changing Denver by a sorry 33-49 squad into a title contender, the coach has not earned the admiration of gamers but re-written the principles regarding how to play winning basketball in a mile high.

These aren’t your grandfather’so Nuggets. That is the team of Doug Moe, that after scored 184 points in a match … and lost.

What’therefore the idea in Malone’s head every morning, and the last thing as he drifts off to sleep soundly during the night? Defense.

Instead of use the thin air of Colorado into out-run visitors in the Pepsi Center, Denver has chosen to erect a steel cage to the court, trying to pound foes into submission. The Nuggets&rsquo efficiency ranks in the group among the top five. Their offensive efficiencystands in the middle of the pack.

“Our guys know that if we defend like thiswe could beat anybody in the NBA,” mentioned Malone, after Denver became the first team this season to maintain Houston below 100 points. “Just imagine if we keep to defend at this level and the crime picks up. ”

Are the Nuggets trying to take the same route into the NBA Finals that enabled Broncos linebacker Von Miller and the gang to deliver a Super Bowl 50 victory to Denver?

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Yes, defense wins championships.

But in the NBA playoffs, the survivor is the team that produces the tough shots in the clutch.

The Lakers have LeBron James and Anthony Davis. The Rockets include Russell Westbrook and Harden. The Clippers have Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.

To acquire the West, the Nuggets will require more than clamp-down defense. After getting a vital halt in the fourth quarter of a playoff match, that ’will make the big opportunity for Denver other than Jokic?

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