Breaking News: The Staff Announced the New Reno Aces Coach on a Note Board

DENVER—Michael Malone made it apparent that the Denver Nuggets’ primary aim in the second half of the season was to keep their starting five healthy, with winning coming second.

Just five games after the All-Star break, star point guard Jamal Murray suffered an ankle injury in the first half of a game against the Miami Heat. Murray was playing a back-to-back after being unsure about going the night before.

“Talked with Jamal (Murray) quickly at halftime and after the game, he wanted to give it a go and warm up, but it didn’t respond the way he hoped,” said Malone, who was in attendance. “We just gotta be as careful as possible at this point in the season.”

Murray will give it another test and join the Nuggets on the road in LA for their next game, or at least that’s the plan as of Thursday night.

“It’s great for him to realize being cautious right now is probably the really prudent decision,” Malone continued. “And that shows maturity, and he’s growing up, but he realizes it and I said this, we want the number one seed, that’d be great, but I want to be healthy. Because I know if we’re healthy, we can beat anybody anywhere. And so that’s all I care about is trying to be as healthy as possible.”

Despite Murray’s absence the entire second half the Nuggets were able to survive the Miami Heat 103-97 thanks to a giant game from Michael Porter Jr. The tall forward led Denver’s fifth-straight win with 30 points on 23 shots, adding 11 rebounds.

“I felt Michael’s baskets in this offense kind of carry the day to give us that separation,” Malone said. “It was great to see Michael step up with the way he did in Portland when Jamal didn’t play in that game in the second half, and Mike was outstanding. Tonight Jamal didn’t play in the second half Mike was outstanding.”

It was the Nuggets second game in two days where they held their opponent under 100 points, the fifth time they’ve accomplished that feat this year. The Heat were banged up and playing a third game in four nights seeking a sixth win in a row but Denver was able to overcome their own heavy legs to play extremely physical defense and twice holding the Heat to 20 points or less in a quarter.

“Very reminiscent of our NBA Finals games, keeping them right below 100 points,” Malone said in a statement. “When you’re on a winning run, it always coincides with us playing strong defense, because that’s where it all starts. And that’s why we won last year: we had a strong playoff defense. We have a tough game in Los Angeles coming up, and then we have a couple of really tough teams coming into Ball Arena to start, so that defense must continue through the next 23 games.”

Nikola Jokic’s first game after the All-Star Break without a triple-double saw him fall behind MPJ and Aaron Gordon.

On Saturday, Denver will play its third game in four nights, this time in Los Angeles against the Lakers. The Nuggets then return home for a four-game series against the Suns, Celtics, Jazz, and Raptors.