PHILADELPHIA — The Nuggets botched their plan for a tricky East Coast back-to-back.
They pushed all their chips to the center of the table Sunday in the first leg. They brought back Aaron Gordon and Christian Braun from prolonged injury absences. They played Jamal Murray for 40 minutes. They played Tim Hardaway Jr. for 34 off the bench.
They lost in Brooklyn anyway.
The sting of that loss was amplified by the domino effect of their decision to go all in. Denver is resting Murray, Hardaway, Gordon and Braun for the second leg of the back-to-back Monday in Philadelphia, bringing the total number of unavailable rotation players to seven. The entire starting lineup will be out, with Nikola Jokic and Cam Johnson both recovering from knee injuries. Backup center Jonas Valanciunas is also out with a calf strain.
Murray is missing just his second game this season. His absence is attributed to a left ankle sprain on Denver’s official injury report, but he’s been able to play through nagging pain without much hinderance in recent weeks.
Teams are prohibited from resting star players in nationally televised games if they’re healthy, according to a rule instituted in 2023 to combat the rising tide of “load management.” But the NBA can’t issue a fine to the Nuggets for sitting Murray out because he doesn’t meet the “star player” criteria outlined by the Player Participation Policy. Although he’s widely seen as a star, he has never been named to an All-Star or All-NBA team.
Hardaway is listed as out on account of an illness and “management.” He has played in each of the Nuggets’ first 35 games this season.
When Nuggets coach David Adelman was 10, Erik Spoelstra knew he was destined for greatness
Gordon (hamstring) and Braun (ankle) were on minutes restrictions in Brooklyn as they returned from their respective injuries. Nuggets coach David Adelman all but said after the loss that Denver was leaning toward resting them, as well as Murray and Hardaway, for the back-to-back.
Nine players are available for Adelman to use in Philadelphia, including two on two-way contracts: Jalen Pickett, Bruce Brown, Peyton Watson, Spencer Jones, DaRon Holmes, Julian Strawther, Curtis Jones, Hunter Tyson and Zeke Nnaji.
Seven of those nine have combined for 47 career NBA starts. Brown and Watson are the most experienced players in the group at handling higher totals of minutes. Watson and Spencer Jones have been starting in place of Braun and Gordon for most of the season.
Curtis Jones has not played any NBA minutes outside of garbage time; Holmes played his first such minutes last week in Toronto.
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