The Denver Nuggets had an extremely quick turnaround for the second leg of their latest back-to-back after their road win against the Houston Rockets, to then take the flight back home to face the Sacramento Kings just a day later.

It’s a two-game slate that Nuggets head coach David Adelman had noted prior to the game vs. Sacramento as “an extraordinarily tough back-to-back,” and after their results of their 123-128 loss to the Kings that led to Denver’s second loss in four games, that tall challenge ended up being exactly what it was expected to be.

But after the outcome of Denver’s home loss, nobody in the Nuggets’ locker room was making excuses about the challenging turnaround on the schedule–– one of those being Cameron Johnson.

“You can’t use that as an excuse, it’s the NBA,” Johnson said of the Nuggets’ back-to-back. “Every team has back-to-backs, every team has to deal with it. This is our home court, so that’s not an excuse.”

Instead of leaning upon the burden of playing two games in two nights, the message is simple: even when the fatigue is high and the schedule does them no favors, it’s an every-night business in the NBA.

Peyton Watson Says Nuggets Could’ve Been Better Despite Back-to-Back

Peyton Watson also shared a similar sentiment after the Nuggets’ loss: while the fatigue is obviously a factor, it’s simply part of the grind of the NBA job and the schedule that comes with it. They’ve just got to play through it.

“I mean that’s just the fatigue of the league. I feel like we all know what we signed up for playing in the NBA,” Watson said post-game. “It’s a grind, but I mean it’s just the best job in the world to me. I love to go out there and compete no matter the day. We’ve just been a little bit fatigued, a little bit short-handed, but that’s no excuse. We could have done better and got the win.”

Denver seemingly had control of this one after the conclusion of the first half, but after a fourth-quarter run from the Kings, combined with a 23-8 differential in fast-break points and a 6-13 turnover differential throughout the night in favor of Sacramento, the Nuggets ran out of gas in the end despite a heroic 44-point performance from Nikola Jokic.