{"id":348824,"date":"2025-10-18T03:28:20","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T03:28:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/348824\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T03:28:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T03:28:20","slug":"cam-johnson-on-his-first-home-game-at-ball-arena-with-nuggets-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/348824\/","title":{"rendered":"Cam Johnson on his first home game at Ball Arena with Nuggets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cam Johnson<\/a> needed a way to help pass the time.<\/p>\n

His Brooklyn Nets were playing in Denver, but he was sidelined by an injury and unable to join the action. Naturally, he was a little bored.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sitting there arguing with fans the whole time,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n

This was Johnson\u2019s last game in Denver as a visitor. Nuggets 124, Nets 105. Jan. 10. Since then, he\u2019s been traded to the Nuggets for Michael Porter Jr., and on Tuesday, he played his first game at Ball Arena wearing the home uniform. He likes it better this way.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was over calls and stuff,\u201d Johnson continued. \u201cAnd I\u2019m like, \u2018Shut up, it\u2019s not a foul.\u2019 I\u2019m not playing, so I\u2019m messing with people. They\u2019re ganging up, and they\u2019re yelling, and there\u2019s one guy who just kept yelling. \u2026 He\u2019s right behind the bench, just wailing. I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh my God, go somewhere.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The memory is all in good fun. Needless to say, though: \u201cIt\u2019s nice to have them backing me now,\u201d Johnson said, laughing.<\/p>\n

The Nuggets\u2019 newest starter spent time signing a few autographs after he warmed up Tuesday, ingratiating himself with the fans with whom he once jousted. Then he amassed 11 points, three rebounds and two steals in 21 minutes as Denver defeated the Bulls 124-117, improving to 3-1 this preseason.<\/p>\n

The real home opener will be Oct. 25 against Phoenix \u2014 a week from Saturday. But this Tuesday was closer and closer to a dress rehearsal, as Denver\u2019s starters played into the second half of the team\u2019s only home preseason game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always funny when you go to a new team and you\u2019re so used to playing them on the road side,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cJust to see what it\u2019s like as the home team for that first time is always just very different. The arena feels different. It\u2019s hard to explain. But it was fun. \u2026 Just funny how the feel is so different when you switch sides.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson is still trying to find his place in a lineup alongside four other players highly attuned to one another\u2019s tendencies. His feel for movement and space seems calibrated already. An accurate sense of when to seek the ball is more elusive.<\/p>\n

As a result, he\u2019s been statistically pedestrian. Jamal Murray dropped 30 points in the win Tuesday. Nikola Jokic fell two rebounds and two assists shy of a triple-double in just 23 minutes. Aaron Gordon scored 17 points for the second straight game. Johnson has done most of his work off the ball, despite Denver\u2019s desire to use him as a ball-handler. He\u2019s been instinctively deferential throughout the acclimation process.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m feeling out the movement of everything, you know? Where people go, where people look, things like that,\u201d he said. \u201cWhere the passes come from. It\u2019s a spacing thing. It\u2019s a personnel thing. It\u2019s just getting used to playing with the guys. So I feel good about the spots I\u2019ve gotten shots out of. Maybe just finding other ways to be aggressive outside of that is probably more of my concern.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for his 5-of-16 start from 3-point range, Johnson and the Nuggets both have a mature perspective: \u201cNobody\u2019s ever been exempt from that,\u201d as he put it, \u201cnot even the best to ever do it.\u201d Johnson has made 10 of his first 24 shots from the field in four exhibitions.<\/p>\n

Most encouragingly on Tuesday, he knocked down a 3-pointer from a designed play out of Denver\u2019s \u201chorns\u201d setup. Two players go to the corners, and two go to the high posts, forming a mini-triangle with the point guard at the top of the key. In this case, that was Gordon, who fed Jokic on the right elbow, then followed a screen from Johnson into the paint. Johnson popped out to receive a handoff from Jokic after setting the pick.<\/p>\n

The shot was wide open. The fit in an action alongside Jokic and Gordon looked seamless.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought Cam last game (in Los Angeles) was really fun to watch, watch him flow with our guys,\u201d coach David Adelman said. \u201cAnd everybody\u2019s gonna be like, \u2018Oh, he didn\u2019t shoot the ball well.\u2019 He got great shots. And so did Tim (Hardaway Jr.). If those guys are playing that way, playing the way we play, after only playing with us for a couple of weeks, what will it look like in a couple of months?\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson is slowly getting comfortable in Denver. He checked off one rite of passage by experiencing the grueling drive to and from the airport. He explored the local zoo. He\u2019s drinking more electrolytes than usual while still figuring out the altitude \u2014 a growing pain for every new Colorado athlete.<\/p>\n

And after picking up four fouls on Tuesday, he\u2019s getting accustomed to the Ball Arena crowd taking his side.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s any negativity, I either forgot about it or it didn\u2019t reach me all the way,\u201d he said of the reception from the fan base. \u201cSo far, it\u2019s been very, very positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want more Nuggets news? Sign up for the Nuggets Insider to get all our NBA analysis.<\/a><\/p>\n

Originally Published: October 15, 2025 at 10:45 AM MDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cam Johnson needed a way to help pass the time. His Brooklyn Nets were playing in Denver, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3781],"tags":[7,765,301,187,3943,766,6,302,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-348824","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-nuggets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-colorado","10":"tag-denver","11":"tag-denver-nuggets","12":"tag-denvernuggets","13":"tag-front-range","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-nuggets","16":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115393049623215623","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}