The Nuggets got a much-needed win on Sunday night, beating the shorthanded Warriors, 116-93. It was a very encouraging defensive performance by Denver, the type they haven’t shown in a long time, and one that should have the team feeling confident about what they can do when everyone is healthy.
The only problem with that idea is that it’s starting to look less and less likely that the Nuggets will ever actually be fully healthy this season.
Even in the comfortable victory, they lost both Cam Johnson and Spencer Jones to injuries, with neither player returning. Johnson was said to be dealing with a back injury, while Jones was experiencing hamstring tightness.
Johnson supposedly wanted to come back into the game, and perhaps he would have if it were closer, but Jones was quickly ruled out for the night. Hopefully, neither of these is a serious issue, but it’s more just representative of the way the season has gone in Denver, with one injury after another.
Nuggets may never be at full strength
All season long, the rhetoric has just been that whenever the Nuggets team is whole, they’ll be a juggernaut. But now we’re less than two weeks away from the end of the regular season, and we still haven’t really gotten a good look at this team when everyone is on the court at the same time.
Granted, it doesn’t seem like anyone is suffering from anything long-term at the moment, but that has been the case for a while, and still, little ailments won’t stop popping up. At this point, even if things come together health-wise, they’ve completely missed the opportunity to gel as a team and build any kind of rhythm.
Still plenty of uncertainty with Denver lineups
A lot of these players are veterans who have played together and have playoff experience, but still, this is a new team, with a lot of new pieces. Johnson hasn’t been in a playoff game in years. We’ve yet to see this version of Peyton Watson with this group; there still aren’t great options for backup center minutes.
Obviously, health is the top priority, and if the roster is fully intact for the playoffs, I’ll happily take my chances. But the goal was always to get some time together and to build chemistry and figure out what’s going to work in the playoffs.
But now, it feels like that ship has largely sailed, and we are still going to be looking at some experimentation once the postseason begins. It would be nice to have more data to draw from, but this is the hand we’ve been dealt. We can only hope it doesn’t end up being their downfall.