After Jokic’s second consecutive poor shooting night Friday in Denver, Michael Malone checked on his star center “to make sure that he is not losing any confidence — which knowing him, I know he won’t,” Malone said. “But I want to make sure he’s not.”

That conversation might as well represent the overall state of the defending NBA champs after a rare three-game losing streak. Jokic, Aaron Gordon and Jamal Murray have all faced setbacks or slumps early this season, but the full trio briefly resembled its 2023 playoff form Monday night during a 129-122 Nuggets win over the Hawks at State Farm Arena.

Jokic bounced back from his 18-for-58 shooting stretch with an efficient 25 points, eight rebounds, eight assists, three steals and two blocks. Gordon, whose scoring has been down at 12.5 points per game entering Atlanta, was in full battering ram mode en route to 17 points and 12 boards. Murray, in his third game back from injury, shined the most with 29 points and nine rebounds, sinking key 3s as Atlanta tried to erase a 20-point deficit late.

“I think the way we played, that’s what makes me a little bit more happy,” Jokic said. “Just, we played the way we are usually playing. And that’s what makes me happy. Of course, a win is a great thing, but the way we played today, that’s how we need to play the rest of the season.”

The trio combined to shoot 28 for 38 from the field, led by Murray’s 12-for-15 night.

“I love when Jamal rebounds,” Malone said. “That to me shows that he’s aggressive, and he’s impacting the game across the board. He’s still on a minutes restriction, so to only play him 29 minutes, I was really happy about that. And to see what he did in those 29 minutes was pretty incredible.”

But for the Nuggets (15-9) to snap their skid and pick up their sixth road win of 2023-24, they needed a spark from a rookie. That’s what Julian Strawther seems to be best at. Denver trailed by as many as 11 in a defensively lackluster first half, but the late first-round pick led a comeback going into halftime with one of his increasingly recognizable heat-check games. Strawther made his first five 3-point attempts to score 19 of his 22 points in 16 first-half minutes, also providing much-needed defensive energy with four of his five steals coming before the intermission. He also won the defensive player of the game chain.

“His activity and not being hugged up, being in the right position, helping and forcing turnovers where we can get out and run … that’s so encouraging,” Malone said.

Out of one Denver timeout during the rally, Strawther scored driving via a designed dribble handoff from Michael Porter Jr., staggering again with the second unit. In their first possession after another timeout later in the quarter, the Nuggets drew up a Jokic handoff that resulted in the rookie’s fifth 3-pointer.

“(The coaches) have so much belief in me,” Strawther said, “and they’ve consistently shown me that if I have it going, they’ll let me rock.”

Denver was also on the receiving end of technical foul free throws this time, three days after mounting frustration with officiating resulted in a Murray ejection. Atlanta star point guard Trae Young was thrown out of the game when he received two swift technicals late in the third, as the Hawks were attempting to slowly climb back. Without Young, they closed the gap to five with 32 seconds left as Denver got haphazard with the ball and sloppy defending the perimeter. Bogdan Bogdanovic scored 40 on a remarkable 10-of-17 outside shooting.

Jokic and Gordon did most of their work bullying Atlanta’s front court in the paint. When they sat, Zeke Nnaji was back in the lineup as Denver’s backup center after Malone opted for DeAndre Jordan four consecutive games. Nnaji’s 12 minutes were largely productive, with four rebounds, two blocks and learning moments. He got isolated in the second quarter against Young, who crossed him up for an easy floater. At the other end, he repented with a put-back and-one.

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“I’ve never seen that before, and I don’t think I’ll ever see it again,” Michael Porter Jr. told Nuggets coach Michael Malone after Jokic shot 9-for-32 in a loss to the Clippers.

It was the worst shooting game of the two-time MVP’s career accounting for both volume and efficiency (28.1%). Back home two nights later, he shot 9-for-26 in another loss, including a 1-for-10 start. Jokic’s superpower for years now has been his immunity to bad games. A “bad game” for Jokic usually still ends up in the ballpark of a semi-efficient 20-point double-double. He still makes teammates better. Still impacts winning. Even in Los Angeles, he produced his 114th career triple-double.

Make no mistake, though, that was an actual bad game. Denver’s best player uncharacteristically shooting 9-for-32 was the biggest difference between a win and loss. And while it ultimately wasn’t a worrisome bad game — as Porter said, odds are Jokic never misses that many shots in one night again — it did illuminate a recent trend (in exaggerated form).

Jokic’s methods of effectiveness can shift with the ebbs and flows of a season, and lately the shift has been from near-unstoppable scorer back toward dead-eye distributor. Point in case: The 10 assists he managed to scrape together Wednesday even while taking so many shots.

The duality speaks to Jokic’s spike in responsibility lately. The Nuggets relied on him to operate their offense even more than usual as the weeks without Jamal Murray stretched on. Now that Murray (hamstring, then ankle) is back, the theme to monitor will be whether Jokic’s touches can decrease back to a more regular quantity — and regular for him is still a lot. Ideally, he’s scoring and passing at peak efficiency at the same time. Even in another MVP-caliber start to a season, the stars just haven’t fully aligned that way yet.

The dividing point in Jokic’s 2023-24 so far, statistically, is his ejection Nov. 20 in Detroit. It was around the one-month mark. It was Denver’s 14th game. Jokic had played in all of them, albeit limited minutes against the Pistons for obvious reasons. Because a first-half ejection can skew per-game stats, the best lens to use here is a per 36 minutes average.

Start with shooting volume. Through 14 games, when Jokic was already in score-first mode more than usual, he was attempting 15.45 2-point shots per 36 minutes. He was making 66.2% of those shots. As automatic as any interior finisher in the NBA.

In his next eight games after the ejection, Jokic attempted 20.81 shots inside the arc per 36 minutes and only made 51.2% of his 2-point attempts. Five of those eight were on the road, where the Nuggets are prone to lapses in offensive flow. Perhaps Jokic has felt an added responsibility to carry his team’s scoring in those games, when the Nuggets were often playing from behind. He has also grown frustrated by a lack of foul calls. Opponents have guarded him physically. Whatever the case, shooting more frequently has not paid off.

Then again, he has also averaged 11 assists per 36 minutes in this eight-game stretch, a bump from 9.5 per 36 in the first 14 games. His turnovers per 36 minutes have declined from 3.6 in the first 14 games to 2.3 the last eight. When an empty Nuggets possession ends with Jokic right now, it’s because he’s missing a shot, not coughing it up with an over-ambitious pass … even though there have actually been more opportunities for him to cough it up.

Jokic passed the ball on 18.2% of his paint touches his first 14 games; he passed on 23.9% of his paint touches in the next seven, entering Friday night’s game vs. Houston. His pass rate on post-ups also jumped from 28.4% to 46.9% between those stretches, coinciding with a drop in post-up shooting percentage (55% to 42%). For turnovers to decrease despite a notable rise in passing situations is a testament to Jokic’s pedigree as one of the all-time great play-making centers. He and Malone have acknowledged before that turnovers are an inevitable side-effect of his creativity and the type of basketball the Nuggets play. Yet twice in three games last week, Jokic registered a 30-point triple-double without committing a single turnover (ending a 56-game streak in which he had at least one turnover). No other NBA player in the last 40 years has accomplished that twice in their career.

In other words, Jokic has arguably reached a new career apex as a distributor in recent weeks, even while his 2-point shooting plummeted.

Murray came to Jokic’s defense Friday with an impassioned response to a question about the center’s poor shooting nights.

“I don’t shoot well every game,” Murray said. “Jok don’t shoot well every game. Mike don’t shoot well every game. Sometimes we don’t play defense. It can’t be just on: ‘He missed a couple floaters. Why are we down?’ No, it’s not about that. I hate when people keep saying that. Like, so what? He had a bad game. Or a bad shooting night. Whatever the hell you want to call it. He had a triple-double the other night, and you’re saying he had a bad game. I don’t know what player has a bad game after a triple-double.”

How can shooting volume and passing volume both leap so much simultaneously? That gets to the crux of this most recent chapter in Jokic’s season.

Of the Nuggets’ first 14 games, the NBA tracked individual touches in 12 of them (excluding Denver’s wins against Golden State and Chicago). When touches were tracked, Jokic averaged 107.5 per 36 minutes. In the next seven games, he averaged 118.2 touches per 36 going into the Rockets game.

“Obviously, heavy is the head that wears the crown. A lot is being asked of him every night,” Malone said. “To score, to rebound, to defend, to play-make, to be a leader, and he’s never shied away from it. That’s one thing I love about Nikola. … I’ve gotta find ways to maybe get Nikola some rest and lessen his burden, but knowing him and how tough he is, he won’t want that. He won’t even want to hear it.”

Murray’s return should spread out the priorities of opposing defenses, making life easier for Jokic as a scorer again. But the current 18-for-58 stretch has occurred with Murray in the lineup, possibly a reminder that even Jokic needs to rediscover his shooting rhythm sometimes.

“He’s doing everything he can,” Murray said. “Not every night’s gonna go your way.”

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Tensions were already high Friday night as the Nuggets were attempting to overcome a seemingly insurmountable 25-point deficit in the last nine minutes. With an 18-0 run, they finally got a stir out of Ball Arena, a justifiably lifeless building for the first three quarters given the home team’s performance. The Rockets were perhaps tensing up a bit. This game had everything. Except a referee controversy.

In the final four minutes, Jamal Murray was ejected after picking up two technical fouls in quick succession, Michael Porter Jr. was handed a technical for slamming the ball in response to a foul call, and it was a miracle Nikola Jokic didn’t get one or two of his own after he vehemently argued whistles (or the lack thereof) during his post battles with Alperen Sengun.

Murray joined Jokic and coach Michael Malone in the Nuggets’ club of ejectees this season. He was tossed with 38 seconds left after Denver (14-9) had cut Houston’s lead to six.

“I just think he got thrown out because he was cutting through the lane and he was getting choked,” Malone said. “So if you have arms around your neck … I would probably get thrown out too. So I fully support Jamal. Though you never want to get fourth-quarter techs. That’s like an unwritten rule. But as I watched that clip, he’s cutting through the lane and he’s being held up the way he’s being held up. And it happens over and over. That causes frustration. I think that’s what happened with that. But I have Jamal’s back, 1,000%. I thought he was a warrior for us tonight.”

Murray had just received his first tech seconds earlier. While Denver had possession, his attempt to cut off-ball was guarded physically, prompting him to turn to the baseline official and yell, demanding a foul call. After Murray’s second technical was issued, he stormed down the tunnel.

“I mean, it’s on camera,” Murray said when asked if his frustration was more related to the one play or an accumulation of calls throughout the night. “The whole game is being recorded. So if you want to go look at it, it’s there for the taking.”

Malone’s comeback lineup

Malone was pointed about the lack of effort and energy he felt the Nuggets had Friday, especially while allowing 40 points to Houston in the third quarter. In a notable move, he subbed out Aaron Gordon and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope with 3:32 remaining in the third, and neither returned the rest of the game. Instead, Peyton Watson played the entire fourth quarter, and Reggie Jackson played the bulk of it during Denver’s comeback attempt.

“I think sometimes it comes down to effort, want-to, fight, care,” Malone said. “And that group that we closed with, I thought they made the game interesting. It was fun to watch. … On a night when you’re not making shots, you have to do other things. And I think that group that was out there, we got stops, we rebounded, we ran, we executed.”

Jokic, Murray and Porter were the three starters who stayed on the floor.

“I give Coach some kudos, keeping the starters in there, keeping whoever’s playing hard in there,” Murray said, “and we were able to make it a game at least.”

Four matchups in the first 23 games of the season? That’s more than enough. Three was enough. But in one last clash added to the schedule a week ago after they were eliminated from the in-season tournament, the Nuggets sputtered on offense for a half and defense for a quarter in a 114-106 loss to Houston on Friday night at Ball Arena.

Denver (14-9) trailed 103-78 with 8:26 remaining but mounted a miraculous 18-0 run to get within seven with three minutes remaining. The Nuggets had the ball with a chance to cut it to five, but Alperen Sengun’s chippy defense against Nikola Jokic forced a turnover with 2:32 left. Houston finally scored by getting to the line at the other end, and the Nuggets ran out of gas as Jokic waged war with the officiating crew for how Sengun was defending him in crunch time.

This was the Nuggets’ first home loss since Game 2 of the NBA Finals in June. It’s the first time they have ever lost a Western Conference home game with Jokic, Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon and Michael Porter Jr. all playing. The Rockets snapped an 0-8 start away from home. They were the NBA’s last winless team on the road this season.

“I thought it was a low-energy night most of the night, to be honest,” Michael Malone said. “The whole arena was very low-energy. We were low energy. … That third quarter, we came out of halftime and just didn’t do anything. Either side of the ball.”

The Nuggets finish 1-3 against Houston in 2023-24.

They entered their 10th game at Ball Arena leading the league in offensive rating (125.3), shooting (52.3% from the field) and assist-to-turnover ratio (2.59) in home games. But none of that mattered in a first half that was sluggish offensively other than brief scoring burst from Murray. After opening a 14-7 lead, the Nuggets went on a three-minute scoring drought as Sengun engineered a 13-0 run. A cutting Peyton Watson bucket snapped the skid, but from there, Denver was playing from behind the rest of the night.

“We made it a game,” Murray said, identifying effort as the key to Denver’s turnaround. “This is one that I feel like we don’t have to be so down on.”

Sengun finished with 17 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists to aid Jalen Green’s 26 points, while Jokic’s struggles Wednesday in Los Angeles carried over in a 9-for-26 outing from the field. He went to the halftime locker room with one assist and a 1-for-10 shooting mark, having missed 20 of his last 22 shots and 31 of his last 38 going back to Wednesday.

His team was fortunate to be trailing only 52-48 in spite of that, thanks to a Kentavious Caldwell-Pope circus three to beat the halftime buzzer. But the Rockets worked Denver’s starters in a 40-point third quarter, shooting 14-for-18 from the field and 6-of-8 from 3-point range. The lead ballooned to 25 before Jokic finally got going and spurred the comeback with an 11-point fourth.

“A couple late rotations,” Murray said. “Give them credit. They played a really good game.”

On the night Nugget-turned-Rocket Jeff Green received his NBA championship ring in a pregame ceremony, Denver’s bench managed to hang with Houston’s. Watson, building on his recent defensive gems that garnered new trust from Michael Malone, led the second unit with 13 points, four rebounds and two assists. He earned his way onto the floor alongside Denver’s starters during the furious fourth-quarter comeback.

Porter and Murray both received technical fouls in the last four minutes after reacting angrily to foul calls. After Murray’s first technical with 41 seconds remaining, he thought he was fouled during Denver’s ensuing possession. He yelled at the referee, “That’s a foul!” and the referee waited for Porter to make a 3-pointer before stopping play and ejecting Murray. Porter’s three before the technical cut the deficit to 110-104.

When does the free throw percentage become a serious concern? Almost everyone is shooting bricks.

— Danny, Denver

The way it’s concerning is more so the way it’s impacting physicality and confidence about getting to the line. It’s a team-wide issue, but the topic really begins and ends with Aaron Gordon. Michael Malone has said recently he wants Gordon to seek trips to the line more aggressively. Even though he has attempted the second-most free throws on Denver’s roster so far, Gordon’s trips to the line are down significantly from last year, when he was building a strong All-Star campaign.

He has attempted 50 foul shots in his first 18 games of 2023-24, making 26 of them. In 2022-23, he reached 50 attempts during his 13th game and had attempted 80 through 18 games. Gordon is an effective bully-ball scorer when he’s inviting and playing through contact. In those 18 games, he was 61.3% at the line, still not great but a wide margin better than his current 52%. By the turn of the calendar, he was averaging more than 17 points through 30 games. He’s closer to his career average right now at 13.1 per game.

It speaks to the wider trend that is the Nuggets’ inability to get to the stripe: They’re averaging the third-fewest foul shots per game as a team (19.5) and the fewest per game on the road (17.1), amounting to an NBA-worst 70.8% mark (69.4% on the road).

“We’re leaving a lot of points on the foul line,” Malone said. “And you’re in a lot of close games. Very rarely will you just blow teams out. So when games are close, it’s a one- or two-possession game, you don’t want to keep the opposing team in the game because of all these missed free throws. The hard thing is the schedule hasn’t really helped us get in the gym and have any practice, but I do know guys are getting in the gym individually and getting their reps in. And I hope that sooner or later, we’ll find a rhythm.”

Michael Porter Jr. is 5% below his career average; Reggie Jackson is 20% below his; Nikola Jokic is worse than 80% for the first time in his career, even after getting back on track recently. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope has been steady, and Jamal Murray’s presence should correct course for the team somewhat. Still, it’s harder to find a rhythm when you’re not frequently getting to the line to begin with.

So should Reggie Jackson be named to the All-NBA team? Before you say no, how could Murray be named (All-NBA) with similar stats? 

— Edward, via email

Well, the whole point is Murray couldn’t be named All-NBA with those stats right now. You’re referring to the fact that Jackson averaged 16.3 points in his 13 starts while replacing Murray, the exact same scoring total Murray was averaging before his return from multiple injuries Wednesday night. Not only that, but Jackson achieved that average on better shooting (53.8% from the field).

The point of the stat is to illustrate the commendable job Jackson did filling a void that, before this season, was probably fair to question whether he could handle. Murray is one of the best guards in the NBA, and Jackson was someone who wasn’t cracking Denver’s rotation during the playoffs a few months ago. It’s hard to overstate how timely his offensive resurgence has been.

That doesn’t mean 16.3 points per game are All-NBA numbers. Now that Murray is seemingly healthy, he faces a steep uphill battle if he wants to reach that achievement, both in terms of usage and statistics. Even before his hamstring injury in early November, he was excelling most as a play-maker, averaging a career-high 7.1 assists. I’m curious to see if that trend continues, and if so, whether it’s at the expense of higher scoring numbers.

Do you think Jackson’s scoring will start to fade now that he’s back with the second unit and won’t have as many opportunities with Jokic?

— Roger, Denver

I definitely don’t expect him to keep averaging 16, because he’s just not going to keep averaging 30 minutes. But I think the bench does need him to be semi-consistently in double figures. That’s where his value is highest. At the other end, he has defended against 220 field goal attempts through 22 games, which is 39th-most among NBA guards as of Thursday. Opponents are making 52.7% of those shots. Out of the 38 guards who have defended against more attempts, only one has a worse DFG% (Kyle Lowry).

For a volume comparison within Jackson’s own roster, Caldwell-Pope has defended against 219 shots, coming in right behind Jackson at 40th-most among guards. Only two who have faced more attempts have a better DFG% than Caldwell-Pope’s 42.9%: Nickiel Alexander-Walker (38.9% on 226) and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (40.8% on 277). KCP continues to share a shot-disrupting stratosphere with elite backcourt defenders such as Jrue Holiday (42.9% on 280 field goals defended), O.G. Anunoby (43.1% on 216) and Lu Dort (43.6% on 220).

When Jackson plays with Denver’s starters, he’s surrounded by a combination of exceptional defensive players (Caldwell-Pope, Gordon) and offensive players (Jokic, Porter). Everyone else on the floor helps maximize his strengths. When he spearheads the second unit — a collection of players whose primary job is to stave off opponents during Jokic’s rest minutes using hard-nosed defense — the scoring onus is on Jackson. He’s on the floor to provide points even if his defending isn’t on par with Christian Braun’s or Peyton Watson’s. There understandably isn’t as much of a flow to the bench unit’s half-court offense, either, so a point guard with Jackson’s particular gift of one-on-one shot creation can be essential.

What do you make of the Nnaji contract extension at the quarter-point of the season, now that he isn’t even part of the rotation?

— Lee, Golden 

Twenty-two games were never going to vindicate or condemn Nnaji’s contract, which was a preseason box to check among other things. The deal was agreed upon some 48 hours before the deadline for 2020 first-round picks entering the last year of their rookie scale deals to sign extensions.

It’s certainly not ideal for Nnaji to be relegated to third-string center nine weeks after inking a deal worth $32 million. He has been a DNP-Coach’s Decision three consecutive games, and in two of the previous four, he played fewer than four minutes. But I don’t think that’s for lack of effort or energy. I also don’t think it’s permanent.

The ebbs and flows of the season work like this. Rebounding was a mounting frustration for the Nuggets during their lull in November, and Nnaji has not progressed this season as a defensive rebounder. He has two defensive boards in his last eight games. Malone’s instinct is always to lean on veterans, but DeAndre Jordan is a two-time NBA rebounding title holder. Even in decline, Jordan understands how to use his size. It makes sense that he would be Malone’s reaction to a poor stretch on the glass for his team.

An average annual value of $8 million for Nnaji isn’t necessarily an overpay if you anticipate the salary cap increase on the horizon. For that reason, it’s also a very tradable contract.

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In the latest edition of the Nuggets Ink podcast, host Matt Schubert and beat writer Bennett Durando catch up prior to the Nuggets’ loss at the Los Angeles Clippers. Among the topics discussed:

• The fellas catch up on a few superlatives at the quarter point of the season for the Nuggets. What’s the best win of the season to date? Worst loss? Biggest surprise? Biggest disappointment?
• What’s the verdict on the NBA In Season Tournament? Is this a win for the league? Worth keeping around? Does anyone really want the medals that go to the winning team? Did the Nuggets at all regret not qualifying for the quarterfinals?
• Is it already time to declare Jamal Murray’s All-NBA chances dead given all of his missed games?
• We found out Peyton Watson, Julian Strawther and Christian Braun all live in the same apartment complex. So which one is Kramer?

Subscribe to the podcast
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Producer: AAron Ontiveroz
Music: “The Last Dragons” by Schama Noel

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Nine days after going into Los Angeles and beating the Clippers without Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray or Aaron Gordon, the Nuggets lost 111-102 with all three in the lineup Wednesday.

Denver (14-8) hosts the Rockets on Friday in another rescheduled game for teams eliminated from the in-season tournament.

A Jokic low point

Usually, when Nikola Jokic’s rest minutes are shaky for the Nuggets and the game is closer than they’d like, the two-time MVP re-enters the game and everything fixes itself.

Not this time. Jokic missed more shots than he had ever missed in a single game in his NBA career, finishing 9-for-32 from the field including a stretch of nine consecutive misses in the second quarter, also matching a career-worst streak.

His night spiraled in spite of a promising start in the one area where he has struggled this season: the perimeter. His first two attempts of the game were made 3-pointers, seemingly getting him back on track (he entered the game at a career-low 30.1% beyond the arc).

Ultimately, Jokic still registered his ninth triple-double of 2023-24 by picking up his 10th assist late in the game, but this was arguably his worst — or at minimum his least efficient — game in years.

Porter’s early rhythms

The way Denver rotates its lineups will inevitably have some impact on this — the bench unit carries the first few minutes of the second quarter — but there has been a trend of Michael Porter Jr. getting off to a hot start then falling off his scoring paces when he returns to the floor. The latest: An 11-point first frame followed by a scoreless second in which he barely touched the ball.

This time, he maintained his consistent touch whenever he had the chance, finishing with 18 points and nine rebounds on 7-of-8 shooting. But for a heat-check scorer such as himself who’s at his best when he’s in a rhythm, his sudden all-to-nothing disappearances within a single half have been noticeable on several occasions this season.

Last Friday in Phoenix, he shot 5-for-6 in the first quarter for 10 points, then didn’t score in the second while attempting only one shot. Five days earlier against the Spurs, he had a line of 12-2-2 after one quarter then only added three points without another rebound in the second. In another premier game against Golden State, he had 10 in the first then two in the second on 1-of-4 shooting.

Sometimes it’s a matter of Porter going cold after resting, other times Denver maybe not involving him enough in the offense. But either way, when Porter gets going, ideally that should keep up. Not coincidentally, a 15-point Nuggets lead became a nine-point deficit in the second quarter Wednesday.

Murray looked fresh

After missing the last two games and 13 of Denver’s last 14, Murray was back in the lineup, his hamstring and ankle injuries seemingly behind him. His encouraging night was a bright spot for the Nuggets, as he amassed 23 points and six assists with just one turnover. He played 22 minutes last week against Houston, but this time the Nuggets tested him a bit more with almost 30 minutes.

This was the Nuggets’ first game since Nov. 4 vs. Chicago that their full starting five played. Both Murray and Aaron Gordon (heel strain) had missed recent games. Denver went with a 10-man lineup in its healthiest game in a month.

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Murray will fly with the Nuggets to Los Angeles, where they will evaluate how his ankle is feeling Wednesday morning and determine whether he’s able to play against the Clippers (8 p.m. MT, ESPN).

“If he’s able to give us some minutes tomorrow night, that’d be great,” Malone said.

Murray’s official injury report designation recently has been a right ankle sprain. He’s missed Denver’s last two games after turning the ankle two minutes and 19 seconds into his first game back from a right hamstring strain last Wednesday. He had been out 11 games due to the hamstring, but Malone confirmed that’s no longer an issue; any absence for Murray is entirely related to his ankle now.

“Hamstring’s fine. I’ve worked enough to get it back to strength,” Murray said after his return last week, frustrated by the immediate setback to his health. “Now it’s just another thing.”

If the 26-year-old point guard misses five more games this regular season, he will be ineligible for end-of-year accolades such as All-NBA teams, thereby also rendering him unable to sign a supermax contract during the 2024 offseason. He was eligible for a three-year, $145 million extension last offseason that would have started in 2025-26, but no such extension was signed.

Murray needs to achieve All-NBA honors for the first time in his career to become supermax-eligible. Under the NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement, All-NBA teams are no longer divided by position starting this season, seemingly increasing Murray’s chances in a crowded competition of elite guards — if he can stay healthy.

So far without Murray, the Nuggets (14-7) have gone 7-6 using Reggie Jackson as their starting point guard. During those 13 starts, Jackson has averaged 16.3 points, 5.3 assists, 2.8 rebounds and 1.9 turnovers on 53.8% shooting (44.4% from 3-point range). Murray has also averaged 16.3 points in his eight games this season, but on 41.4% shooting.

If the starter misses Wednesday’s game at the Clippers, the silver lining is that Jackson’s former teams seem to be his specialty: Last week he registered his fourth career 35-point game along with 13 assists to lead the Nuggets to a gutsy win in Los Angeles without Murray, Nikola Jokic or Aaron Gordon in the lineup. Jackson has upped his game for 24.7 points on 68.9% shooting and 7.7 assists in three games against his former teams (the Clippers and Pistons) this season.

“You have to give Reggie Jackson (credit). I can’t say enough great things,” Malone said. “Just look at Reggie’s numbers on the season and the last five. What he’s doing is just incredible. His efficiency with Nikola and (DeAndre Jordan) in pick-and-rolls. His efficiency in terms of shooting the basketball. Could not be more proud of Reggie and the way he’s played, whether it’s behind Jamal or starting in place of Jamal. So if Jamal’s ready, great. If not, we’ll continue to find ways to go out there and compete.”

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Christian Braun, Peyton Watson and Julian Strawther are apartment neighbors. They hang out almost every day, usually congregating at Braun’s place. “It’s an open house,” he said.

In this situation, it was open invite. The Nuggets had just landed in Denver after nine days and a 1-4 record on the road. The three neighbors happen to be part of a second unit that had just been called out by coach Michael Malone. After a 105-86 loss to the Rockets, Malone told his team in the locker room that he planned to make changes to bench players’ minutes.

Back in Denver, the young players gathered.

“We just talked through it,” Braun told The Denver Post. “We knew that was on us. We knew we’ve gotta play better, so we just hung out and talked about it.”

“Just keeping each other in the right mental space,” Watson said. “In a positive space.”

If growing pains come with the territory of relying on a young bench, then Malone, who later acknowledged the balance between tough love and empowering confidence in those players during tough times, has at least been consistently pleased with the character that his occasional frustration has revealed in them. After a poor showing in Houston, Watson bounced back Sunday against the Spurs with his second career Defensive Player of the Game chain. He registered four points (including a miraculous floater over 7-foot-4 Victor Wembanyama), four rebounds, two assists, two blocks and a steal. Strawther added 10 points, four assists and three steals.

“One, it’s me taking a step back, taking a deep breath, saying a Hail Mary, whatever it may be, and kind of remembering: ‘Hey, Julian was in college last year,'” Malone said. “‘Peyton didn’t play last year. Christian is a second-year player. Zeke (Nnaji) is a fourth-year player that hasn’t played a ton of basketball because of injuries.’ So I’ve gotta be constantly reminding myself to help them. I have to help them through this.

“But yeah, in all my conversations with all those guys, the one-on-one conversations, what you love about them is that they’re willing to look in the mirror. They understand they have to be better, and they own it. There is no ‘yeah, but…’. That kind of work ethic that they all have and that kind of coachability only bodes well for all their futures.”

It helps for the newbies to have each other, too. Braun already went through the ups and downs of being a rookie on a championship-caliber team. Even though it’s only his second season, he understands those experiences make his perspective especially relatable to players like Watson and Strawther, who are being asked to play regular NBA minutes for the first time. Watson says he watched Braun closely throughout last season to gain a sense of how gradual rookie growth is.

So the apartment is open. On off nights, they often watch other games together. Mostly NBA, but sometimes college ball. Braun, Strawther and Watson all went to major programs in Kansas, Gonzaga and UCLA. When the team got home from an Oklahoma City afternoon game Oct. 29, they watched the Kings-Lakers overtime thriller that night.

“Just, order cookies, order some donuts and hang out,” Braun said.

“We enjoy hanging around each other,” Watson said. “… At the end of the day, we’re all we’ve got in this journey.”

Sometimes a basketball breather is needed. A recent trend of horror movies was Strawther’s idea, according to Braun. But selections such as “The Purge” and Jordan Peele’s “Us” rattled the host.

“It’s scary,” Braun said. “It’s too scary. I told them no more scary movies.”

This isn’t an unusual bond, of course. Teammates become friends. It’s an archetype across sports. But as Aaron Gordon pointed out before the season, “you don’t always like your coworkers. … It’s been like that in the NBA before, and it will be like that in the NBA again.” Gordon was identifying an aspect of what made the Nuggets’ starters so cohesive at sharing the floor en route to the championship last season. Simplified: They all like one another.

That’s the example that’s been set by Denver’s older players for Braun and company to see. If the Nuggets’ vision is to build a Spurs-esque machine that contends across multiple generations, it doesn’t hurt to start forming the friendships now.

It can pay dividends at a time like last weekend.

“There’s been a lot of high highs and a lot of low lows,” Strawther said. “We’re trying to navigate it all. We’re all young. At the same time, there’s a lot of expectation.”

Playing time didn’t end up changing significantly after Malone made his proclamation about the second unit, but that was partially a result of how they responded to his message. In the three games after Houston, Strawther was a plus-14 on the floor, far improved from a minus-28 his previous three games. Watson contributed eight more points, three rebounds and two steals in Denver’s dramatic win over the Clippers before sitting out Wednesday due to an ongoing head cold. He was ready by Friday, supplying sterling defense against Kevin Durant, who shot 0-for-10 in the second half. Braun has started to come into his own as a viable sixth man, making an impact at both ends.

“We’re in similar positions. Actually, competing for similar minutes. But that’s not what it’s about,” Braun said. “I think when I came in last year, all I had was a bunch of dudes that helped me out, tell me what I needed to know to get on the court. So I think it’s my job to do the same for them. Tell them the information that I got. … I think we know that if this team’s gonna be really good now and in the future, us three have to be really good.”

But sometimes this year, they won’t be. Braun’s apartment is waiting for when that happens.

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After playing five games in the last seven days, Denver (14-7) has three days off before visiting the Clippers on Wednesday.

Back-to-back good fortune was up

The defending champions were one of only three NBA teams with five back-to-backs in the first six weeks of the 2023-24 schedule. It was an unlucky draw for the Nuggets after a short offseason, but they have somehow managed to turn lemons into lemonade for the most part, winning the second game of all four back-to-backs before Sacramento (Utah, Chicago, at Detroit, at Los Angeles). In two of those four, they were without Nikola Jokic during crunch time.

It was only a matter of time before that good fortune ran out, and Sacramento was coming off two days of rest. All things considered, it’s impressive that Denver has allowed only 106.6 points per game in the second game of back-to-backs so far. There’s another on the road one week from now, in Atlanta then Chicago.

Outside shooting the difference

Jamal Murray didn’t play for the Nuggets again, missing the whole road back-to-back after returning from his hamstring injury for one game earlier in the week. While Nikola Jokic posted his 27th career 30-point triple-double (36, 13, 14) by making an array of ridiculous 2-point shots, the Nuggets missed Murray’s hot shooting ability. They couldn’t buy a basket from outside.

Denver shot 6 for 25 beyond the arc, while allowing the Kings to make 16 of 34 attempts from three. The only stretch of the game in which the Nuggets discovered something was a late 10-0 run to close within three points in the fourth quarter. Aaron Gordon and Jokic made key 3s during the comeback effort.

Good trip for Watson, but bad night for bench

Jokic bounced back from a scoring “off” night in Phoenix (21 points) by amassing 16 points in the first quarter. He checked out late in the quarter with the Nuggets leading 27-19. During his rest minutes, the Kings went on a 23-7 run as JaVale McGee blocked shots and controlled the paint against a struggling DeAndre Jordan, who had played well in recent games. This was a regression for Jordan, who played 9:50 while Michael Malone continued to not play Zeke Nnaji.

Denver’s bench was a leading culprit as Sacramento scored 39 points in the second quarter and opened up the double-digit lead that the Nuggets were fighting back from the rest of the night. By halftime, bench points were already 26-9 Sacramento.

Peyton Watson was a huge positive defensively for the second consecutive game, however. He followed up his airtight second half against Kevin Durant by guarding impressively against De’Aaron Fox and other Kings players. With 2:30 remaining and Denver trailing 114-110, Malone tried to check Watson in for a defensive possession, but the officials said he didn’t get to the table on time and didn’t allow him to enter. While Watson returned to the bench, more than a minute passed without a dead ball. It ended with Malik Monk hitting a dagger 3 with 1:11 left, capping his 26-point night off the bench.