Denver Nuggets Gear Up for Pivotal Game

• NBA

In the heart of Colorado, on the eve of the most crucial game in Denver Nuggets' franchise history, the air is thick with anticipation. Head coach Michael Malone took this crucial moment to motivate his team, underlining the importance of never underestimating the opponent.

Battling Complacency

"My biggest concern going into any close-out game is human nature and fighting against that," Malone confessed (via ESPN) on Sunday, right before the all-important Game 5. He was acutely aware of the deceptive sense of security teams often fall into when leading 3-1 in a series. "Most teams, when you're up 3-1, they come up for air.

They relax and they just kind of take it for granted that, oh, we're going to win this." The Nuggets, however, are no ordinary team. Malone stressed the importance of being cognizant of the fact that an upset is always possible when a team is down 3-1.

He urged his team to approach the game as if they were on the losing end of the series. "They are desperate. We have to be more desperate. They are hungry. We have to be hungrier."

A Team with a Plan

"We are going to approach it as a must-win game," declared the Nuggets' star player, Nikola Jokic.

He acknowledged the magnitude of the upcoming game, but exuded a sense of calm and readiness. "By reflection of the practice today, how everybody was locked in, I think we are going to be ready." Jamal Murray, another leading player for the Nuggets, voiced his team's readiness to clinch the title.

"It's long before we made it here that I thought this was going to happen," Murray expressed his long-held belief in the team's potential. He traced the team's current success back to their chemistry and experience built over the years, all with the same core players.

He continued, "To be here just kind of rounds it out and shows that when we are given the right circumstances and everybody healthy, God willing, we can do it. When we're playing our best basketball, we are a very hard team to stop."