Preparing for an NBA game follows a very specific ritual, and every little hiccup in the routine risks driving the players who then have to take the field crazy. We can only imagine what it was Denver Nuggets reaction when they realized that in the locker room of the Crypto.com Arena their playing shoes were not there waiting for themforcing them to an emergency solution such as take to the field to shoot and begin their warm-up with slippers on their feet. This is not a mockery of the Los Angeles Lakers – against whom, before tonight, the Nuggets had won the last 11 games in a year and a half to take a 3-0 lead in the series – but rather a simple logistical mix-up.
In the NBA, in fact, it is usually the away team travels on two buses at different times: the first bus is the one that arrives at the arena first and on which the insiders as well as the younger players and assistants get on, the second is the one where veterans usually go up. The mix-up was explained by Michael Porter Jr., the most prominent player, who had to take the field in slippers during the warm-up: “Our shoes were all on the second bus, while as usual I arrived on the first. The routine before a match is fundamental and therefore I was not happy about this lack, but we are all human and we can make mistakes.” The late arrival of his shoes it didn’t affect the performance of at least MPJsecond best scorer of the team with 27 points and 11 rebounds shooting 10/20 from the field and 4/11 from three points in 40 minutes of play closed with a plus-minus of +4 (the only positive of the whole team, which in the minutes without him it lost by 15), but it still remains a curious episode — which, we imagine, it is unlikely to be repeated in the future for the Nuggets.
