Nuggets' Fournier took an ill-timed nap, nearly eaten by coach Shaw's

Evan Fournier needs to be careful where and when he takes his naps from now on.

A Yahoo Sports story on Thursday shed light on a recent Denver Nuggets team outing that very nearly left Fournier as dog food.

The team went to coach Brian Shaw's house for a barbecue, but nobody noticed that Fournier didn't get on the departing bus with the rest of the team. An hour later, Shaw nearly left after locking up before deciding to do one last sweep of the premises, and it's a good thing he did.

"I locked up everything, and everything seemed in order before I was going to walk out. I went on the deck to make sure there weren't any bottles or plates laying around. I saw a leg and a hat on one of the chaise lounges outside. I went over and he was knocked out.

"I woke him up and told him, 'The bus left over an hour ago.' The crazy thing is had I not done that sweep he would have been locked out on my back patio and his cell phone wouldn't have any service or any juice."

That sounds annoying, sure, but there's one other wrinkle.

"I have the protection dogs and the players were trying to see them and they were agitating my dogs. One of my dogs had actually jumped over the fence and onto my courtyard. [Fournier] would've been stuck out there with them."

Scary stuff. Fournier admitted that his coach, "saved my life." Maybe that's an overstatement, but it could have gotten hairy for the Frenchman.