The Nuggets are banged up, but they don’t have much time to adjust facing a 1-2 series deficit against the Clippers in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs. As Bennett Durando of The Denver Post writes, interim coach David Adelman hinted at rotation changes.
At the start of the series, Denver used an eight-man rotation with Jalen Pickett playing sparingly as the eighth man. DeAndre Jordan and Julian Strawther were used at points in the series while Hunter Tyson and Zeke Nnaji have been limited to garbage time and Vlatko Cancar and Dario Saric haven’t played.
Key reserve Russell Westbrook is questionable for Game 4 due to left foot inflammation, Durando adds. He exited Game 3 after just nine minutes.
“They checked him out this morning. … So we’ll kind of gauge that as we go,” Adelman said. “And if Russ plays or doesn’t play, we’re gonna take a look at our rotation. We may play different people. See who can impact the game with how [the Clippers] are guarding and how we’re trying to guard.”
We have more on the Nuggets:
- As we wrote Friday, Michael Porter Jr. was able to play the duration of Game 3 but he was clearly struggling through a left shoulder injury he suffered in Game 2. According to DNVR Nuggets (Twitter link), Porter is officially questionable for Game 4.
- The players on the injury report aren’t the only ones hurting. In an appearance on NBA on ESPN (Twitter link), Andscape’s Marc J. Spears said Jamal Murray is working through an injury and that Aaron Gordon told him he could barely jump. “No one’s 100% right now,” Adelman said, per Durando. “Aaron’s not 100%. Nikola [Jokic]’s not 100%. Just like the Clippers. All their guys have ailments at this part of the season. Michael [Porter] is one of our guys. He’s a mainstay here. If he’s available to play, he will play.”
- With their backs seemingly against the wall, Denver will need to get creative in how it attacks Los Angeles, Durando writes in another piece. “We got embarrassed today,” Adelman said after a 34-point loss in Game 3. “It happens in the playoffs. I’ve been a part of it before. I’ve been a part of the other side of it. The bottom line is, it’s one game.” As Durando writes, the Clippers have multiple lengthy defenders while the Nuggets don’t have many top-caliber shooters, allowing them to at times triple-team Jokic.