{"id":599268,"date":"2026-02-12T17:26:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T17:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/599268\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T17:26:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T17:26:17","slug":"nuggets-nikola-jokic-predicts-jamal-murray-wont-have-fun-at-all-star-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/599268\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic predicts Jamal Murray won’t have fun at All-Star Game"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tim Hardaway Jr.\u2019s<\/a> ride was waiting out back. As he slipped out of his work sneakers and hastily assembled a few belongings, Christian Braun urged him to hurry from across the Nuggets\u2019 locker room.<\/p>\n

\u201cTSA!\u201d<\/p>\n

There was no need to worry. Hardaway has PreCheck. Airport security wasn\u2019t about to slow him or anybody down. The Nuggets couldn\u2019t begin their vacations quickly enough Wednesday night after a 122-116 win over the Grizzlies.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody\u2019s got flights,\u201d coach David Adelman<\/a> said. \u201cGuys have flights tonight at midnight. There\u2019s a lot going on here. And I understand it. It\u2019s been a grind for everybody. It is for the whole league.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the Nuggets, it\u2019s been a treacherous obstacle course. They\u2019re limping into the NBA All-Star break this year, mostly in a literal sense, though they\u2019ve also lost four of their last six games. With Aaron Gordon and Peyton Watson out of the lineup and Cam Johnson, Nikola Jokic and Christian Braun added back in recently, they were clinging to a lead until the final buzzer against Memphis, minds threatening to wander to warmer places.<\/p>\n

Cabo San Lucas. Arizona. Miami. Los Angeles, for All-Stars Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish we would have played better,\u201d Braun said. \u201cWe want to build good habits going into the break.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not concerned,\u201d a candid Adelman countered. \u201cWe had some guys that are exhausted. \u2026 We wanted to get a win going into the break. And that\u2019s what they did. The guys toughed it out. \u2026 All these guys need a break, not just from basketball but from each other. From me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NikolaDENVER , CO – FEBRUARY 11: Nikola Jokic (15) of the Denver Nuggets drives on Taylor Hendricks (22) and Olivier-Maxence Prosper (18) of the Memphis Grizzlies during the first quarter at Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado on Wednesday, February 11, 2026. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz\/The Denver Post)
\nA needed break<\/p>\n

The tally stands at 35-20 \u2014 one game worse than Denver\u2019s record at the break in both of the previous two years, and four games worse than the 2023 championship team was. The Nuggets are first in offense, 24th in defense, ninth in net. Six rotation players have missed three or more weeks. Fifteen different players have started a game, even though only 13 players are on the roster. Adelman has deployed 22 different starting lineups, already tied for the most in a Nuggets season this decade, with 33% of the schedule remaining.<\/p>\n

In that last third, Denver needs to go 15-12 to extend its streak of 50-win seasons to four; 18-9 to match the championship team\u2019s win total; 22-5 to tie the single-season franchise record.<\/p>\n

Those numbers added up to an exasperated but upbeat Adelman. All that mattered to him when the dust settled on Wednesday was the playoff seed. The Nuggets held their ground in third place in the West, a game ahead of Houston and 3.5 back of San Antonio. They haven\u2019t slipped below third for two consecutive days since Dec. 4.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say we\u2019re very tired,\u201d Bruce Brown said. \u201cI mean, guys are going down. Guys are playing more minutes. Getting banged up. I rolled my ankle today. Just little nicks and bruises. \u2026 This break is coming at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown\u2019s long weekend will involve \u201cprobably no basketball,\u201d a sentiment shared by everyone who wasn\u2019t in a rush to leave the locker room Wednesday. Cam Johnson looks forward to spending time with his dog, a mini Aussiedoodle named Halo. Zeke Nnaji will visit family in Minnesota. Braun will at least keep an eye on KU basketball scores while he\u2019s reaping the rewards of his $125 million payday in Cabo, which is \u201ckind of a little routine for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

He won\u2019t be keeping as much of an eye on the NBA events taking place in Los Angeles. Most of the Nuggets said they\u2019ll be content to skip over that, maybe except to support Murray in the 3-point contest.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just excited that \u2018Mal and Jok will be there. I\u2019m not too excited for the All-Star Game,\u201d Braun said. \u201cQuite frankly, don\u2019t know how much of it I\u2019ll tune in to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HeadHead coach David Adelman of the Denver Nuggets reacts after a foul call on Jonas Valanciunas (17) after he tangled with Jaylen Wells (0) during the second quarter at Ball Arena in Denver on Wednesday, February 11, 2026. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz\/The Denver Post)
\nNuggets coaching staff off the hook<\/p>\n

For Jokic, this marks eight consecutive years of not being able to plan a quick trip to Serbia. \u201cI always say it\u2019s a pleasure to share the court with all those players,\u201d he insisted Wednesday, but he also knew there was no use hiding his jaded feelings about the weekend as a whole. When asked what he hopes Murray gets out of the experience as a first-timer, the three-time MVP didn\u2019t have much of an answer to offer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely an experience,\u201d Jokic said, \u201cbut I\u2019m not sure that he\u2019s gonna enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just happy for (Murray) to go see the experience,\u201d Adelman said. \u201cI think Nikola is not as excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adelman and his staff were half a game away from joining their star players. The coaches at All-Star weekend are usually determined by the first-place teams in each conference after Feb. 1, but the NBA doesn\u2019t like to make the same coach do it twice in a row. That disqualified Oklahoma City\u2019s Mark Daigneault this year and passed the baton down to the second-place team. It was Denver the morning of Feb. 1, but the Nuggets\u2019 loss combined with the Spurs\u2019 win that night caused a flip in the standings.<\/p>\n

Adelman and his assistants were snubbed, or off the hook, depending on how one looks at it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were all kind of shocked that all of a sudden, we had a chance to coach it, because we were a couple of games back with about a week and a half to go,\u201d the first-year head coach said. \u201cAnd there were definitely people making (other) plans. \u2026 That staff has been absolutely incredible to keep these guys going. Just their messaging, and the confidence that each player had when they played has a lot to do with what goes on behind closed doors. Those guys do an unbelievable job. I would have been most excited to go coach it for them, because what they\u2019ve done. They deserve that.\u201d<\/p>\n

They\u2019ll take their own vacations instead, as originally scheduled, and Jokic and Murray will have to keep each other company on the fake business trip to Intuit Dome. After Jokic was informed that Murray intends to play hard in the game on Sunday, the perennially unserious All-Star made his own vow of competitiveness.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlways,\u201d Jokic said in his driest deadpan of the year.\u00a0\u201cI always play hard.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tim Hardaway Jr.\u2019s ride was waiting out back. As he slipped out of his work sneakers and hastily…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3781],"tags":[877,7,6850,1828,561,765,250,301,187,3943,766,762,165,251,307,252,6,253,302,1146,3171,66,759,4714],"class_list":{"0":"post-599268","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-nuggets","8":"tag-aaron-gordon","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-bruce-brown","11":"tag-cam-johnson","12":"tag-christian-braun","13":"tag-colorado","14":"tag-david-adelman","15":"tag-denver","16":"tag-denver-nuggets","17":"tag-denvernuggets","18":"tag-front-range","19":"tag-jamal-murray","20":"tag-latest-headlines","21":"tag-los-angeles","22":"tag-minnesota","23":"tag-more-nuggets-news","24":"tag-nba","25":"tag-nikola-jokic","26":"tag-nuggets","27":"tag-peyton-watson","28":"tag-serbia","29":"tag-sports","30":"tag-tim-hardaway","31":"tag-zeke-nnaji"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116058836195478796","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599268","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=599268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}