Nuggets basking in Finals spotlight, enjoying rest while trying not to allow rust

nbcsports.com:

Nine days. That vacation-length time is how long the Nuggets have off between sweeping the Los Angeles Lakers out of the playoffs and starting the franchise’s first ever NBA Finals.

That should be long enough for what the Nuggets saw as a Lakers-centric spotlight during the Western Conference Finals — continuiing after the series ended thanks to LeBron James hinting about retirement — to come around and shine on the Nuggets. “If anybody is still talking about the Lakers in the NBA Finals, that’s on them,” coach Michael Malone said Friday, hitting on an oldie but goodie in the Nuggets’ locker room. “They’ve gone fishing.

We’re still playing.” After the marathon grind of an NBA season followed by the finishing sprint of the playoffs, Nuggets players talked about being happy with all that time off to rest their bodies.

The concern is rust. “That’s the thing, we take the rest, yeah, but you don’t want to pick up bad habits throughout this week…” Jamal Murray said. “We don’t want to get relaxed.