The Nuggets will repeat the last week of November in the first week of December.
In two new regular-season games not originally scheduled but now assigned to NBA teams eliminated from the in-season tournament, the Nuggets will visit the Clippers on Dec. 6 (8 p.m. MT, ESPN) and host the Rockets on Dec. 8 (7 p.m., Altitude TV). It’s an exact replica of Denver’s schedule this week, which started with a 113-104 win at the Clippers on Monday followed by Houston visiting Ball Arena on Wednesday.
The Clippers and Rockets were also eliminated in Group West B of the tournament. The Pelicans won the group and advanced to the knockout stage.
This will be the Nuggets’ fourth time facing the Rockets in their first 23 games of the season, and their third time facing the Clippers. They will not play against Houston the rest of the regular season, and they will have one remaining matchup with the Clippers, also in Los Angeles on April 4, 2024. On Monday, ex-Clippers Reggie Jackson and DeAndre Jordan both registered double-doubles against their former team to lead Denver to an unlikely win without Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon.
The teams that advanced to the quarterfinals of the in-season tournament were New Orleans, Sacramento, Phoenix, Los Angeles (Lakers), Boston, Indiana, Milwaukee and New York. Semifinalists will compete in Las Vegas for the championship while other NBA teams play the new games on their respective schedules.
Nuggets assign players to G League
In recent games with Murray (right hamstring strain) still out, Michael Malone went away from using Collin Gillespie and Jalen Pickett as backup point guards, opting instead to have Christian Braun as a primary initiator of the second unit’s offense. Both Gillespie and Pickett had gotten about a week of run as Denver’s second-string point guard behind Reggie Jackson after Murray’s injury Nov. 4.
Pickett was one of three Nuggets players assigned to the G League affiliate Grand Rapids Gold on Wednesday, the team announced. But Gillespie, one of the organization’s three players on two-way contracts, was not included in the group going to Michigan. Denver’s others two-way players, Braxton Key and Jay Huff, were transferred along with Pickett. The rookie Pickett has averaged seven minutes in his 10 NBA games this season.
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