After the immediate cascade of bitter emotions washed over them, after they stopped rehashing the disastrous finish and nursing their sore limbs, the Nuggets allowed a more optimistic perspective to set in.
Their double-overtime loss to the Timberwolves this week was inseparable from its context — the continuation of a humbling head-to-head losing streak — but they also could take solace in the point they had proven to themselves without their second- and third-leading scorers.
“I know there’s a lot of talk: ‘Do our guys not want to play (in the playoffs) against Minnesota?