OKLAHOMA CITY — Michael Porter Jr. was beside himself. The Nuggets’ locker room was emptying, but he felt rooted to his seat, as if he hadn’t earned the right to go home. It was late March, and he was agonizing over a gnarly 3-point shooting slump that had cratered that night at Ball Arena with a 1-for-10 showing. The visiting Chicago Bulls won by 10.
“I lost us that game,” Porter said to nobody in particular, lamenting the glitch in his shooting form. Picturesque when it’s properly calibrated, it felt broken in the moment.