DENVER (AP) — Jamal Murray’s delicate health. Michael Porter Jr.’s dizzying slumps. Aaron Gordon’s balky right calf. Russell Westbrook’s boneheaded plays. An indifferent defense. A paper-thin bench. An ever-changing starting lineup.
The Denver Nuggets’ headaches are so many that Nikola Jokic, in the midst of an historic season, couldn’t pinpoint his biggest concern following their latest loss Sunday to the short-handed Indiana Pacers.
“I don’t know. Maybe we just, maybe we just ... I don’t know, actually,” Jokic said.
The Nuggets are hoping a stunning shakeup will provide a solution to all that ails them.
In a shocking move with less than a week left in the regular season, the Nuggets fired coach Michael Malone on Tuesday with the team in fourth place in the Western Conference, in the midst of his eighth consecutive winning season in Denver and less than two years removed from leading the franchise to its first NBA championship.
The team also announced that general manager Calvin Booth's contract won't be renewed.
“Play hard and have fun,” Josh Kroenke, the vice chairman of Kroenke Sports and Entertainment, replied when asked by Vic Lombardi of the team’s flagship Altitude network for his immediate expectations for the team.
Kroenke added that he and his father, owner Stan Kroenke, decided in recent days that both Malone and Booth would be out after the season, so “then your mind then turns to what is the best decision for this group right now?"
“And from that point forward, I became comfortable with the thinking of you know let's try to shake this tree and squeeze as much out of this as we can.”
The Nuggets tabbed David Adelman as coach for the remainder of the season, which includes road games against Sacramento and Houston sandwiched around a home game Friday night against Memphis, which fired head coach Taylor Jenkins on March 28 despite being playoff-bound, like the Nuggets.
Kroenke said “it is with no pleasure” that the Nuggets made the coaching change, but insisted the timing had everything to do with salvaging Denver's hopes for a championship despite season-long hiccups that have rendered them a longshot.
The Nuggets (47-32) have lost a season-high four straight games and are in a logjam of teams fighting for home-court advantage in Round 1 of the playoffs. Their 11-13 record since the All-Star break has sent them tumbling from second place in the West into a possible play-in scenario, an unthinkable possibility when they entered All-Star weekend on an eight-game winning streak.
Malone pointed the finger at himself after the most recent loss, saying: “I’ll start with me: We’ve lost four games in a row and I’m never going to this-guy, that-guy. How about me, as a head coach, not doing my job to the best of my ability? We haven’t lost four in a row in a long time. It’s really easy to be together and say ‘family’ when you win, but when you’re losing games, can you stay together?”
Over the weekend, Malone lamented Denver's defensive struggles and Murray's latest injury, which has proven costly late in games as the Nuggets have been unable to execute their efficient Jokic-Murray two-man game.
“The defense has been the most disappointing part of this year,” Malone said. "The huge drop-off."
Denver lost a Game 7 at home in the Western Conference semifinals a year ago to Minnesota when the Nuggets blew a 20-point second-half lead. They lost all four of their games this season to the Timberwolves, whose president of basketball operations is Tim Connelly, Denver’s former general manager.
Overall, they’ve lost six straight to the Wolves.
Their latest skid began when the Timberwolves stole a 140-139 win in double-overtime despite Jokic’s career-best 61-point triple-double when Westbrook missed an uncontested layup and then fouled Nickeil Alexander-Walker on a 3-pointer with a tenth of a second left and Denver clinging to a one-point lead.
Malone sat all his starters the next night and the Nuggets were beaten by a San Antonio team playing out the string without Victor Wembanyama when Westbrook again had a crucial late blunder.
Malone defended his choice of sticking with Westbrook, suggesting his body of work was more important than his poor plays down the stretch, and besides, Murray's been out.
The four-game slide comes despite Jokic — a winner of three of the last four NBA MVP awards — averaging 30 points, 12.8 rebounds and 10.2 assists per game. He’s on the verge of becoming the first player in league history to finish top-three in all three categories.
Even that wasn’t good enough for Denver to enter the final week of the season certain of even having home court in Round 1.
The 53-year-old Malone won 471 regular-season games in Denver, 39 more than Doug Moe, for the franchise’s all-time coaching lead. Starting with the first playoff appearance under Malone in 2019, the Nuggets advanced past the first round six times in seven chances. They made the Western Conference finals in the Walt Disney World bubble in 2020 and then rolled to the championship by winning 16 of 20 playoff games in 2023.
At the team’s championship parade, Malone spoke about becoming a dynasty and as things soured on them a year ago, he pointed to Tim Duncan's Spurs teams which never won back-to-back titles but won three championships in five years, suggesting these Nuggets had more titles in them.
AP Sports Writer Pat Graham contributed to this report.
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba
Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone, left, argues for a call with referee John Goble (10) in the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Utah Jazz, Friday, March 28, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone argues for a call in the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Utah Jazz, Friday, March 28, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone directs his team against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the second half of an NBA basketball game Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) — Thousands of people flocked to Bethlehem's Manger Square on Christmas Eve as families heralded a much-needed boost of holiday spirit. The giant Christmas tree that was absent during the Israel-Hamas war returned on Wednesday, overlooking a parade of scouts playing songs on bagpipes.
The city where Christians believe Jesus was born cancelled Christmas celebrations for the past two years. Manger Square had instead featured a nativity scene of baby Jesus surrounded by rubble and barbed wire in homage to the situation in Gaza.
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the top Catholic leader in the Holy Land, kicked off this year's celebrations during the traditional procession from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, calling for “a Christmas full of light.”
Arriving in Manger Square, Pizzaballa said he came bearing greetings from Gaza's tiny Christian community, where he held a pre-Christmas Mass on Sunday. Among the devastation, he saw a desire to rebuild.
“We, all together, we decide to be the light, and the light of Bethlehem is the light of the world,” he told thousands of people, Christian and Muslim.
Despite the holiday cheer, the impact of the war in the Israeli-occupied West Bank is acute, especially in Bethlehem, where around 80% of the Muslim-majority city’s residents depend upon tourism-related businesses, according to the local government.
The vast majority of people celebrating were residents, with a handful of foreigners in the crowd. But some residents said they are starting to see signs of change as tourism slowly returns.
“Today is a day of joy, a day of hope, the beginning of the return of normal life here,” said Bethlehem resident Georgette Jackaman, a tour guide who has not worked in more than two years.
She and her husband, Michael Jackaman, another guide, are from established Christian Bethlehem families that stretch back generations. This is the first real Christmas celebration for their two children, aged 2 1/2 and 10 months.
During the war, the Jackamans pivoted to create a website selling Palestinian handicrafts to try to support others who have lost their livelihoods.
During the Gaza war, the unemployment rate in the city jumped from 14% to 65%, Bethlehem Mayor Maher Nicola Canawati said earlier this month.
A visitor from France, Mona Riewer, said that “I came because I wanted to better understand what people in Palestine are going through, and you can sense people have been through a very hard time."
Although friends and family cautioned her against coming due to the volatile situation, Riewer said being in Bethlehem helped her appreciate the meaning of the holiday.
“Christmas is like hope in very dark situations, a very vulnerable child experiencing harshness,” she said.
Despite the Gaza ceasefire that began in October, tensions remain high across much of the West Bank.
Israel’s military continues to carry out frequent raids in what it says is a crackdown on militants. Attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians have reached their highest level since the United Nations humanitarian office started collecting data in 2006. Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war.
The internationally recognized Palestinian Authority has limited autonomy in parts of the territory, including Bethlehem. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to attend midnight Mass for the first time in two years, the mayor said.
As poverty and unemployment have soared, about 4,000 people have left Bethlehem in search of work, the mayor said. It’s part of a worrying trend for Christians, who are leaving the region in droves.
Christians account for less than 2% of the West Bank’s roughly 3 million residents. Across the Middle East, the Christian population has steadily declined as people have fled conflict and attacks.
Fadi Zoughbi, who previously worked overseeing logistics for tour groups, said his children were ecstatic to see marching bands streaming through Bethlehem's streets.
The scouts represent cities and towns across the West Bank, with Palestinian flags and tartan draped on their bagpipes, drummers spinning mallets adorned with pompoms. For the past two years, the scouts marched silently as a protest against the war.
Irene Kirmiz, who grew up in Bethlehem and now lives in Ramallah, said the scout parade is among her favorite Christmas traditions. Her 15-year-old daughter plays the tenor drum with the Ramallah scouts.
But her family had to wake up at 5 a.m. to arrive in time for the parade and waited upwards of three hours at Israeli checkpoints. The drive previously took 40 minutes without the checkpoints that have increasingly made travel difficult for Palestinians, she said.
“It's very emotional seeing people trying to bounce back, trying to celebrate peace and love,” Kirmiz said.
The Israeli Ministry of Tourism estimates 130,000 tourists will visit Israel by the end of December, including 40,000 Christians. In 2019, a banner year for tourism before the pandemic, the tourism ministry said 150,000 Christian tourists visited during Christmas week alone.
During the previous two years, the heads of churches in Jerusalem urged congregations to forgo “any unnecessarily festive activities.” They encouraged priests and the faithful to focus on Christmas’ spiritual meaning and called for “fervent prayers for a just and lasting peace for our beloved Holy Land.”
Palestinian scout bands parade at the Manger Square near the Church of the Nativity, traditionally believed to be the birthplace of Jesus, on Christmas Eve, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Palestinian scout bands parade toward the Manger Square near the Church of the Nativity, traditionally believed to be the birthplace of Jesus, on Christmas Eve, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Palestinians and tourists visit the Manger Square and the Church of the Nativity, believed to be Jesus' birthplace, ahead of Christmas, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the top Catholic clergyman in the Holy Land, is received by local community while crossing an Israeli military checkpoint from Jerusalem ahead of celebrations at the Church of the Nativity, traditionally believed to be the birthplace of Jesus, on Christmas Eve, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the top Catholic clergyman in the Holy Land, is received by local community while crossing an Israeli military checkpoint from Jerusalem ahead of celebrations at the Church of the Nativity, traditionally believed to be the birthplace of Jesus, on Christmas Eve, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
