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 That was all that mattered to him.
Mudiay scored 11 points in his first action in a month but added six
assists and two steals to help Denver beat the Charlotte Hornets
95-92 on Sunday night.
Forward Danilo Gallinari scored 27 points and guard Gary Harris
added 12 points for the Nuggets, who snapped a four-game losing
streak at home. Denver (14-24) is just 6-11 at Pepsi Center this
season.
Mudiay missed 14 games with a deltoid sprain in his right ankle. It
was similar to the injury that cost him most of the season with the
Guangdong Southern Tigers of the Chinese Basketball Association last
year.
Mudiay had been close to returning for about a week, but the Nuggets
were cautious with the young point guard. Once he was cleared, he
was ready but had to shake off some rust.
"It felt good," Mudiay said. "I came back and played. That's the
main thing. Just wanted to get out there again, see how I felt. I
felt pretty good.
"We got the win."
Guard Jeremy Lamb and center Cody Zeller had 15 points each for the
Hornets (17-20), who have lost eight straight on the road and seven
in a row overall. They finished 0-4 on their Western Conference road
trip.
"It was a tough schedule for us to play here at the end of this
tough road trip," Zeller said. "We've just got to get back on track,
start playing defense. Get back to what we were doing at the
beginning of the season when we were winning."
Charlotte has lost 10 of its last 12 games.
The Hornets had a chance to stop the losing streak but came up short
at the end. With Charlotte down 10, guard Kemba Walker hit a driving
layup and Zeller made two free throws to cut the lead to 95-89 with
1:47 left.
Denver missed two 3-pointers and Charlotte forward Marvin Williams
sank one from the top of the arc to make it 95-92 with 47 seconds
left.
Gallinari missed a shot from long range with 19 seconds left and the
Hornets called a timeout to set up a final play, but Walker and
forward Nicolas Batum missed 3-pointers.
"We tried to get the ball to Marvin and get some pin-down for Kemba
and I, but they played really good defense," Batum said.
Batum finished with nine points and seven assists after missing four
games with a sprained right toe.
"It's always a tough one coming back, especially your first game,"
Batum said. "And this city, maybe it's not the city to come back
because it's tough to breathe in Denver."
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Sunday's game was the first of eight straight at home for Denver.
"It was kind of an ugly win at the end. I'll take it," Gallinari
said. "We needed one. We needed this one to open up a good
homestand."
Mudiay played 39 minutes and showed explosiveness. He had a
fast-break layup midway through the third quarter and a dunk with
9:20 left in the fourth to put the Nuggets ahead 84-80.
Forward Mike Miller, getting some rare minutes, hit two 3-pointers
to help extend Denver's lead to 90-82 midway through the fourth
quarter.
The Hornets went on a 21-2 run in the second quarter to take a
six-point lead. Charlotte reeled off 15 straight points during a
5:37 scoring drought by Denver and led 56-53 at halftime.
"Second quarter, I felt we came out there and played as
individuals," Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. "That caused us to
have a very stagnant quarter and it carried over to our defense.
I'll give our guys credit. In the second half, we held that team to
36 points and 24 percent from the field."
NOTES: Charlotte SG Nicolas Batum was back in the lineup after
missing four games with a sprained right toe. ... Nuggets G Jameer
Nelson was out with a left hip flexor injury suffered in Friday's
loss at Memphis. Nelson had started 13 of the previous 14 games
while PG Emmanuel Mudiay was out with a sprained right ankle. Mudiay
played for the first time since Dec. 11. ... Hornets G Jeremy Lin
played despite battling a tender right ankle. ... Nuggets PF Kenneth
Faried missed his second straight game after the birth of his
daughter, Kenzie Faried-Lewis. He did not make the trip to Memphis
for Friday's game.
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