The Denver Nuggets started the new year with a bang on Tuesday night, as they notched their third straight win against the New York Knicks, 115-108.
Following the victory, Nuggets head coach Michael Malone shared a hilarious blunder involving a mysterious, mistimed birthday greeting.
“Somebody else sent me a random text of happy birthday,” Malone said, via ESPN. “It's a mystery. Don't believe everything you read.”
Asked when his birthday was, Malone joked: “You writing a book?”
For those wondering, both Wikipedia and popular basketball resource website basketball-reference.com list Malone's birthday as January 1, 1971. The 48-year-old (or whatever his real age is) coach claims that this is an erroneous bit of information, and since he did not share his actual birth of date, this could turn out to be an unsolved mystery for who knows how long.
Malone was obviously in a jovial mood on New Year's Day, and this was for good reason. His team handily took care of business against the hapless Knicks, behind Nikola Jokic's monster night.
Jokic dropped a huge 19-point, 14-rebound, and 15-assist triple-double on Tuesday. The 23-year-old also added one three-pointer, one steal, and three blocks to round out another outstanding performance.
Malone had other reasons to smile about, as the team welcomed Gary Harris back to the lineup after almost a month on the sidelines due to hip injury. The 6-foot-4 guard scored only six points (on 1-of-5 shooting, 4-of-4 from the line), but it was definitely good to see him back.
Tuesday night was also Nuggets veteran Paul Millsap's (16 points, 9 rebounds) second game back from an eight-game absence after the 33-year-old sustained a broken toe early last month.
The Nuggets appear to have ridden out the injury storm, and will now look to further establish their place in the upper echelon of the overly-competitive Western Conference.
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