After a game for the ages on Monday night in Philadelphia, in which the Nuggets were missing almost their entire rotation, the injury report is looking a lot better for Wednesday night’s game in Boston. Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon, Christian Braun, and Tim Hardaway Jr. were all upgraded to probable on Wednesday morning and are expected to play against the Celtics.
Nikola Jokic, Jonas Valanciunas, and Cam Johnson all remain out, of course, and aren’t expected back within weeks, but Denver should at least be back to three out of their five starters for the time being.
Murray and THJ were getting the night off on Monday for the second night of a back-to-back in the midst of a long road trip and were never expected to be out for long. Braun and AG returned from extended injury absences on Sunday and are still ramping up and playing with minutes restrictions.
After the extra day of rest, the four key players are all ready to go for the last game of this seven-game East Coast road trip. Denver was limping through the trip before pulling off an improbable win on Monday in Philadelphia. Now, 2-4 on the trip, they have a chance to head home on a respectable note if they can get it done in Boston.
Celtics one of the best stories in the NBA
But that won’t be an easy task because the Celtics have been one of the best and most surprising teams in the NBA this season. Despite Jayson Tatum tearing his achilles, Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday getting traded, and Al Horford and Luke Kornet leaving via free agency, Boston sits in second place in the East with a 23-11 record.
Shockingly, they have the third-best net rating in the league and the second-best offensive rating, just barely behind the Nuggets. They’ve gotten great production from some virtual unknowns, Joe Mazzulla is in the race for Coach of the Year, the roles players are playing over their heads, and Jaylen Brown is an MVP candidate.
It’s all clicking for the Cs, and in a wide-open Eastern Conference, they have a real chance to make some noise, especially with a potential Tatum return on the horizon. But just like Jokic, his All-NBA first team counterpart, Tatum will not be in action on Wednesday night in TD Garden.
Instead, it will be a matchup of secondary stars in Murray and Brown, a battle of elite role players like Gordon and Braun for Denver and Derrick White and Payton Pritchard for Boston, and a chess match between hotshot young coaches in Mazzulla and David Adelman. It should be a good game and a tough test, but a win would make that plane ride home a lot more enjoyable.