Some­time between Paul Millsap’s per­son­al scor­ing spree, or Mason Plumlee’s alley-oop jam, or Michael Porter Jr.’s clutch 3‑pointer late in Friday’s Game 5, a thought struck Nuggets coach Michael Malone.

“That sec­ond half was so fun,” Mal­one pro­claimed Sat­ur­day, hours after his team fend­ed off elim­i­na­tion for the fourth time this postseason.

Not that their 3–1 come­back against Utah in the first round wasn’t an incred­i­ble, his­tor­i­cal ride in and of itself, but Friday’s 16-point come­back against the Clip­pers to force a Game 6 was different.

It crys­tal­lized the ethos of this Nuggets team. It con­firmed all the instances of improb­a­ble resilience they’d shown this sea­son, from their 7‑man win in Salt Lake City, to their road win over the NBA-best Bucks after arriv­ing at the team hotel at an ungod­ly hour.

And whether their 68-day bub­ble tour comes to an end in Sunday’s Game 6, or the Nuggets reach yet anoth­er Game 7, Mal­one is con­vinced the extend­ed road trip has paid div­i­dends. That means new heights for Jamal Mur­ray, new respon­si­bil­i­ties for bud­ding star Michael Porter Jr. and new ten­sions to test themselves.

“I hope that we’re all enjoy­ing this jour­ney that we’re on,” said Mal­one. “Often times, we always get wor­ried about the des­ti­na­tion. And what’s our goal? Our goal is to win a cham­pi­onship. And we all can’t wait for that to hap­pen, at some point in time, when­ev­er that is, this year or in com­ing years. But for me, I have to remind myself, because I enjoyed last night. I enjoyed see­ing our guys being down 16 points and fight­ing back and win­ning in the man­ner in which we did it. So enjoy the journey.”

Mal­one took immense joy in that it wasn’t just Niko­la Jokic or Mur­ray who aid­ed their riv­et­ing Game 5 win over the Clip­pers. Plumlee’s screens freed up Murray’s looks, and Tor­rey Craig’s hus­tle set the table for Millsap’s buck­ets. Monte Mor­ris stead­ied the sec­ond unit, and Jera­mi Grant knocked down clutch 3‑pointers. Gary Har­ris used up all six of his fouls grap­pling with the Clippers.

Against a team heav­i­ly favored to win the series, and per­haps the title itself, it took every­body pulling in the same direc­tion, which shouldn’t be tak­en for grant­ed con­sid­er­ing the men­tal toll the bub­ble has tak­en on play­ers on every team.

But as indi­cat­ed by their sec­ond-half resolve, the Nuggets haven’t booked their tick­ets for DIA, or Ser­bia, just yet. There’s per­haps more fun to be had.

Up 3–2, the Clip­pers already bet the house with the addi­tions of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George last sum­mer. The pres­sure to win is imme­di­ate. The Nuggets, on the oth­er hand, are play­ing with house money.

“That team we’re play­ing is a vet­er­an team, who’s tak­en all their chips and put it in the mid­dle of the table and said, ‘We’re all in,’” Mal­one said. “We haven’t done that. We’re still a young team, build­ing, grow­ing, adding and find­ing out more and more about our players.”

The rea­son the Nuggets have hope of forc­ing yet anoth­er Game 7 is the same rea­son they’re a dan­ger­ous, plucky out­fit, maybe even to a title contender.

“We have noth­ing to lose,” Mal­one said. “Everybody’s writ­ten us off.”

And before you won­der whether that’s Mal­one spin, or a weak attempt at author­ing a nar­ra­tive, con­sid­er Jokic’s opin­ion. Their super­star cen­ter doesn’t have the incli­na­tion at call­ing it any oth­er way than how he sees it. Some­how, the nat­u­ral­ly laid­back All-Star might get even more com­fort­able fac­ing elimination.

“How do we do that?” he pon­dered for a sec­ond. “I think the lock­er room is a lit­tle bit, kind of, loos­er, fun­nier, if I can say that, when we are in elim­i­na­tion games. The guys are, ‘We’re just going to go there and have fun.’ It’s a lit­tle bit relaxed. We don’t have that much pressure.”

When that’s the atti­tude, it’s no won­der they’ve gone 5–1 in elim­i­na­tion games over the past two years. What’s there to stress about if there’s noth­ing to lose? Jokic and his team­mates have flipped the equa­tion, turn­ing all the pres­sure onto the Clip­pers head­ing into Sunday’s affair.

If their free and easy style trans­lates to more engross­ing come­backs, the Nuggets may yet again find them­selves in anoth­er Game 7. And even if they don’t, the progress they’ve made was well worth the price of admission.