Even in Marathon 4-Overtime Game, the Denver Nuggets Did Not Log a Full 26.2 – runnersworld.com

• The Denver Nuggets played into four overtimes on May 3 during Game 3 of the NBA Playoffs against the Portland Trail Blazers.
• Despite playing 20 additional minutes in the marathon game, the team was unable to record an actual marathon distance among all of its players before eventually losing 140-137.
• Center Nikola Jokic logged the longest distance on the team with 4.21 miles.

Spring marathon season is well underway, but not all are embracing the distance.

The Denver Nuggets are included in that bunch, as the team went into quadruple overtime on May 3 in the second round of the NBA Playoffs against the Portland Trail Blazers. While the game felt like a marathon—the four overtimes added an additional 20 minutes to the clock—all nine players that checked in for the Nuggets were not able to collectively reach the 26.2 marathon distance in their heartbreaking 140-137 loss, .

Now, the marathon wasn’t the team’s goal Friday night—they probably would have preferred the win—but with all the running they were doing, we were surprised they didn’t reach that mark, so we had to look into it. That stats were interesting, so we’re going to break it down for you.

The team managed 24.23 miles during the 68 elapsed minutes. That’s 1.97 miles less than a full marathon.

On average, . With five players allowed on the court at a time, that adds up to 12.75 miles per team during 48 minutes of regulation play. If we add fresh legs from the bench like a relay team for a little more pep, let’s just push that up to at least a half marathon.

In this game, we add 20 minutes for the overtimes, and in that time, the half marathon distance was nearly doubled with 24.23 miles total in the game. That’s a lot of miles to put on tired legs, especially for center Nikola Jokic, who logged the greatest distance—4.21 miles—and played for the most time (65 minutes) that evening. Plus, it’s the playoffs, which came after 82 regular season games and a seven-game series against the San Antonio Spurs, so we are sure that near-marathon distance they covered that game felt even longer.

The team fought hard—and ran hard—before eventually falling at the end. As any marathoner can attest, what comes after mile 20 is the hardest, so we will definitely cut the team some slack.

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The Nuggets did rebound yesterday, coming out on top with a score of 116-112, and getting back to covering a more manageable team distance of about 17 miles. (Jokic also Maybe he was upset they missed the marathon again?)

Gear & News Editor Drew covers a variety of subjects for Runner’s World and Bicycling, and he specializes in writing and editing human interest pieces while also covering health, wellness, gear, and fitness for the brand.