The Nuggets are finally back home in Ball Arena Wednesday night after a long East Coast road trip. They’ve also dropped three of their last five games and seen the Lakers pass them in the Western Conference standings. They need to get back on track and that starts on Wednesday against the Kings.
The Kings come to Denver as one of the hottest teams in the league; they’ve won four straight games, and moved up to the eighth seed in the West, just one game back of the sixth-seeded Warriors.
On top of the potential difficulty of the matchup, the Nuggets may be shorthanded, as they enter the day with a tightly crowded injury report full of key players.
Questionable Nikola Jokic leads Nuggets injury report
The Nuggets’ injury report is stacked with seven different players. DaRon Holmes remains out along with Julian Strawther who is expected to miss at least four weeks with his knee injury suffered in Sunday’s loss to the Celtics.
But the injury report is highlighted by the five questionable players, including Nikola Jokic. Jokic was seen limping around during Sunday’s game and is now officially listed as questionable with left ankle inflammation. It’s a good sign that he’s only listed as questionable as any longterm injury to Jokic would be a death sentence for the Nuggets.
If there is any lingering doubt about his health, the team should be super diligent and cautious, making sure he’s back to 100% before he goes out there. Sure, he can play through injury, but he’s simply too important to the team and their playoff dreams begin and end with Jokic’s health.
Aaron Gordon and Zeke Nnaji are both also questionable with ankle sprains. Gordon missed the game on Sunday but it’s not expected to be a longterm issue. Nnaji hasn’t missed any time. Hopefully the Nuggets will have their top two power forwards available.
Nuggets hoping to get Peyton Watson and Vlakto Cancar back
The biggest news is that both Peyton Watson and Vlatko Cancar have been upgraded to questionable. Cancar was injured playing internationally in the offseason and hasn’t played since, but he’s appearing a return and could play a role for teh Nuggets down the stretch and in the playoffs.
Watson injured his knee in late January and has been out ever since. But he posted on Instagram about his imminent return and his upgrade on the injury report suggests the Nuggets could be getting their defensive ace back as early as Wednesday night.