When Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone took the podium immediately following his team’s Game 7 exit from the Western Conference semifinals, he sighted fatigue and high usage of his star players as factors for his team making an early exit from the playoffs.
“Our guys looked dead tired,” Malone said. “They did. Did I run our players into the ground? I’m sure that’s definitely part of it. That’s the decision we made and we’ll live with it.” For an NBA team, with the league’s MVP three out of the last four seasons, success and winning are not a given.