The moment that all Denver Nuggets fans have been waiting for since November finally happened Tuesday night against the Los Angeles Clippers. The Nuggets coveted free agent from the 2017 offseason, Paul Millsap, made his return after suffering a wrist injury in November and missing more than three months of action. While all fans were probably on the edge of their seats waiting for him to check in on Tuesday night, nobody was more excited for the return than Millsap himself, as evidenced by the Tweet of the Week.
The Nuggets lost to the Clippers, 122-120, in that game and it was heartbreaking for a lot of reasons. The primary reason was because it was a loss against the team that is fighting and clawing to take their spot in the playoffs. Indeed, the loss temporarily put the Nuggets out of the top 8 after the game. Secondly, in the last game of February, the Nuggets lost at home before entering a month in which they play the majority of their games on the road. Thirdly, I’m sure the team would have liked to win the game for Millsap since he was making his long-awaited return to the team.
While it couldn’t have been easy for his first game back to be a loss, Millsap is undoubtably just grateful to be back on the court. His presence was felt almost immediately on the defensive end as he did what he’s done his entire career – contested shots at the rim. In under 24 minutes of action, Millsap scored 9 points, brought down 7 rebounds and had 2 blocks to top it all of. Not bad for his first game back. While I’m sure he would have traded that success for a win, it’s good to know that the player the franchise brought to the team in hopes of getting the Nuggets over the hump is still the same player he always was.
