Nuggets Reflect On Missed Opportunities In Game 7 Against Trail Blazers

DENVER (CBS4) - After the Nuggets ended a six-year playoff drought and earned home court advantage as the second seed in the Western Conference, Sunday's Game 7 loss is a devastating end to what was an incredible season.

"It's going to hurt for a while, especially we worked so hard to get home court. And in the game when we need it most, we can't pull it off. Hopefully we build and learn from it, have a better season next year."

Game 7 will be remembered most for all the missed opportunities.

"I didn't have the game I was supposed to have," Murray said of his night, in which he shot 4-of-18 from the field.

And the scorching hot start that ended up being the Nuggets undoing …

"It's a fight. We threw the first punch, they hit back, it's frustrating," Murray said.

"I was trying to calm everyone down, sometimes you get too high. I think we started off really high and can't maintain that. Especially in a playoff series like this, emotions are going to be high. You may need that energy down the stretch, and I don't think we had that. Just didn't have it for whatever reason," Paul Millsap said.

But at the end of the day, every teams' season, except for one, ends in disappointment. While the nuggets are extremely disappointed with how things ended, they know this is only the beginning.

"We proved we're a contender, going to two game sevens. We should leave the arena with our heads high because we accomplished a lot this season," Torrey Craig said.

"Tonight is the end of the season, but I'm not going to let this loss take away from a magical year," head coach Michael Malone said.