Three months before they found themselves on top of the NBA mountain as champions, the Denver Nuggets were in the darkest place they'd find themselves all year.

Or at the very least, they were in Toronto in the midst of winter.

On March 14, 2023, the Nuggets were outplayed heavily by the Toronto Raptors in a 125-110 road loss at Scotiabank Arena, and it was becoming a quick trend for a team that had seemed mostly impenetrable for much of the year.

Toronto scored a franchise-record 49 points in the first quarter, and the Nuggets looked nothing like the team that was pacing the Western Conference for much of last season.

"We got our ass kicked here," Nuggets coach Michael Malone bluntly recalled on Wednesday in response to a question asked by Daily Hive prior to his team's 113-104 win over Toronto. "They jumped on us to start the game and you looked up and we were down 20 like right away."

Following defeats against Chicago, San Antonio, and Brooklyn, the Nuggets suddenly found themselves carrying their first — and only — four-game losing streak of last season after losing to Toronto.

At 46-23, Denver was still in formidable form overall, but tensions were clearly starting to rise from their head coach of the team's sudden slide.

Following the team's fourth-straight loss, Malone gave an impassioned speech in the postgame press conference challenging the fight of his players.

"I'm gonna find some guys that are ready to fight with me. Right now, we're just in chill mode. You can't be in chill mode with 13 games to go in the season. We got to try to find a way to get our swagger back," Malone told the Toronto media back in March.

Michael Malone: "I'm gonna find some guys that are ready to fight with me. Right now, we're just in chill mode. You can't be in chill mode with 13 games to go in the season. We got to try to find a way to get our swagger back and get back to playing Denver Nuggets basketball." pic.twitter.com/PYc0qOvL71

— Oh no he didn't (@ohnohedidnt24) March 15, 2023

Expectations couldn't have been higher at the time for postseason success, with star centre Nikola Jokic was coming off two straight NBA MVPs and Kitchener, Ontario-born point guard Jamal Murray finally healthy after missing the whole 2021-22 season while rehabbing an ACL injury.

But with the team having been bounced in the first round of the playoffs in five games the previous spring by the Golden State Warriors, there was still questions about if they would be able to parlay their regular season success into a long playoff run.

"This is no excuse," Malone added Wednesday. "But I think our guys were getting a little bit almost complacent and bored [near the end of last season]… we were in first place in the Western Conference from maybe the second or third week in December all the way through."

Malone's players held a meeting in the locker room that night in Toronto, with multiple veteran players speaking up after the loss.

"We've got to talk to each other in that moment and pick each other up… we've got to have an awareness to the energy that the other teams are bringing, and hopefully we'll be able to change it," Murray told Daily Hive in March following the loss to the Raptors.

Denver went 6-7 over the remaining 13 regular season games, not exactly the biggest sign of confidence heading into the postseason.

Still, there were signs that something flipped following that game in Toronto. With Jokic playing over 30 minutes they went 5-1, all of which were in the first six games after playing Toronto.

And with three games to go in their season, the Nuggets wrapped up the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference, before they ultimately went on one of the most dominant playoff runs in NBA history, going 16-4, never trailing in a series and only losing once on their home court.

Murray became just the ninth Canadian ever to win an NBA title, while Jokic's Finals MVP firmly cemented his legacy as an all-time NBA great.

Sure, there were plenty of moments in the Nuggets' championship season that will be remembered much more than a blowout loss in Toronto.

But at least one part in the foundation of their run came in response to a challenge issued by their head coach while at Scotiabank Arena.

"You have to be able to navigate those tough times and handle adversity," Malone added Wednesday. "And we were able to do that."