The Nuggets’ forwards have an uncanny habit of getting hurt all at once.
That familiar dilemma emerged again in especially bizarre fashion Sunday. Denver had a fully available depth chart in the morning. By the end of a 116-93 win that night, four of the team’s top five forward options had been ruled out with various injuries. The fifth was playing under a minutes restriction.
“There was a timeout where I just looked back at my day,” coach David Adelman said. “I woke up this morning thinking Aaron Gordon was going to start.”
Instead, Gordon was the first bowling pin to fall. He woke up with tightness in his left calf. The Nuggets have been determined to minimize injury risk with to his calves and hamstrings before the playoffs. He was a precautionary scratch, replaced by Peyton Watson in the starting lineup.
Watson has been limited to around 20 minutes since returning from a right hamstring strain, and Adelman didn’t want to push him beyond that number against the Warriors. Then Watson picked up four fouls before halftime, getting himself in trouble.
Spencer Jones left the game after the first quarter with right hamstring tightness of his own, forcing Adelman to improvise. The first-year Nuggets coach had been using Jones as a backup center recently. Still wanting to prioritize defensive versatility in the second unit, he went to Zeke Nnaji at the five during Nikola Jokic’s rest stint.
Starting small forward Cam Johnson went to the locker room early in the third quarter grabbing the right side of his torso and wincing. He was categorized as questionable with back spasms. Nnaji suddenly had to slot in at power forward next to Jokic, with Watson sitting at 16 minutes. Then Nnaji took an elbow to the face from Kristaps Porzingis and landed awkwardly. He joined Johnson and Jones in the locker room, out with left hip impingement. He left the arena on crutches.
In a matter of hours, the Nuggets had gone from five forwards to half of one.
“It’s just been so funny this year has been like that,” Adelman said. “It’s never a guard and a forward, or a guard and a center. It’s like, it’s just the whole (position) group goes out.”
The good news this time: Johnson could have tried to return to the game, but Denver opened up a comfortable enough lead that it wasn’t necessary for him to push himself in the fourth quarter. The severity of all three injuries was unclear after the game.
“Players after those things always tell you they’re gonna be fine. But they’ll get a better look at them tomorrow,” Adelman said. “I didn’t get any information (on) if there’s any MRIs or X-Rays or anything.”
In the meantime, Adelman was left with almost no choice but to roll with Jonas Valanciunas and four guards to start the fourth quarter. Valanciunas saw his first action since March 18 after being out of the rotation for five consecutive games. Deploying some zone defense, Denver scraped by for five minutes, outscoring the Warriors by two before subbing Jokic and Watson back in together. The closest Golden State got during the final frame was within nine.
Before Nnaji went down, he exchanged his headband for a hard hat. The 25-year-old came to the defense of Jamal Murray after an exchange of bumps early in the second quarter, sparking a minor altercation. Nnaji grabbed De’Anthony Melton’s jersey in the fracas. Gary Payton II ripped Nnaji’s headband off as the confrontation was winding down. All three players picked up technical fouls. That meant a free throw for Denver; Nnaji was rewarded for playing the enforcer.
“Zeke has been so good this year in a role that could be very frustrating. He has been just a pro all year, the way he’s worked,” Adelman said. “You communicate with people daily when you have this job, and you’re making decisions about their life and their career. You can tell when someone means what they’re saying and when they don’t. Zeke has been nothing but honest all year about his approach. … He was very impactful. He was very good defensively. I was glad he stood up for his teammates. And it’s one of those things, you just feel bad for him. He finally gets a chance to play, and then he gets hurt.”
