So this is what it feels like when a $30 million bag of fool’s gold falls on your head.
On the night when Paul Millsap, the man given an NBA fortune to teach the young Nuggets how to win, returned to the Denver lineup after missing 42 games with a wrist injury, the team not only suffered a loss ugly enough to leave a scar, it looked unworthy of the playoffs for the first time all season.
As the clock pushed past midnight into Wednesday morning, after Denver had blown a 19-point lead to the Los Angeles Clippers on its home floor and given away the final spot in the Western Conference playoffs simply because somebody named Boban Marjanovic asked, Nuggets veteran Will Barton stood in a locker room so quiet you could hear a heart break.