DENVER - Back in April, the Denver Nuggets came as close as a team possibly can to making the NBA playoffs - only to fail to do so. It took losing to the Minnesota Timberwolves on the final day of the regular season - and in overtime, no less - for Denver to see their hopes of making the postseason fall short by one game for a second straight year.
For the entire offseason, and throughout training camp, that memory - of falling one game short not once, but twice - has stuck with the Nuggets.