CLEVELAND — The Nuggets began 2026 with a game they knew they had very little chance to win on paper.
They scripted a bit of offense Friday morning in Cleveland. They didn’t have time to scrimmage, to feel things out at game speed as they prepared for their first night without a center. “This will sound crazy,” coach David Adelman said before opening tip, “but we’re playing an NBA game in an hour and a half, and that’s our scrimmage to see, like, where we’re at and how we’re gonna play.”
Their script was almost good enough for Hollywood.
Jamal Murray went for 34 points, six rebounds and seven assists, as a patchwork version of the Nuggets nearly conquered the healthy Cavaliers on Friday. But Cleveland rallied from down nine in the fourth quarter to hand Denver a 113-108 loss while four starters, three MVP trophies and one backup center were missing from the court.
“We should have won,” Murray said.
“Frustrating to lose the game,” David Adelman added, “not because we lost; just because the effort that was given by the group. Very proud to coach this team tonight. I just thought we came to play. We were part of the game physically from the beginning. Obviously, we’re at a disadvantage at certain positions. But I’ll take this kind of effort every night.”
Two days after Nikola Jokic’s knee injury forced DaRon Holmes II to play his first real NBA minutes, Jonas Valanciunas’s calf injury forced him to make his first career start. Zeke Nnaji was his backup center, filling in for a prolonged stint of the first half after Holmes picked up two fouls in the first 84 seconds of the game. After that early hiccup, Holmes returned with another impactful outing. He was a team-best plus-nine while amassing six assists without a turnover.
“Made some really solid plays, and his shot will fall,” Adelman said regarding Holmes’ 1-for-6 shooting night. “The one thing with DaRon late in the game is I wish he would have shot three more. We create open shots; guys have to shoot them.”
Nnaji contributed 13 points and five rebounds off the bench, earning six free-throw attempts.
But as hard as they played, they also fell victim to their size disadvantage at the center position. Cleveland predictably dominated the glass with Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen starting against a Nuggets lineup that didn’t have a player exceeding 6-foot-9. The rebounding margin was 62-45.
“We’re missing size, obviously,” Adelman said.
When Murray wasn’t driving the offense, Peyton Watson was turned loose to create shots for himself off the dribble. He went for 21 points on 22 shots. He also did his best impersonation of Scottie Barnes on New Year’s Eve with a long outlet pass to Tim Hardaway Jr. at the end of the third quarter.
It led to a short jump shot at the buzzer for Hardaway and a 97-88 Nuggets lead entering the fourth. But a daunting stretch of minutes without Murray stood in their way. Cleveland assembled a 9-0 run to pull even. Nnaji answered with a dunk to give Denver a 103-101 edge that lasted for almost three scoreless minutes of game time.
Like they did in Toronto, the Nuggets went cold late, perhaps worn down by the sheer effort that had been required just to hang around without half of their usual rotation. Murray, who used off-ball actions to get open throughout the night, was more fervently double-teamed in the second half. He went 22 consecutive minutes without a point.
“Maybe some more blitzes, earlier blitzes, but the shots were the same,” Murray said. “That was the frustrating part of not being able to put four quarters of scoring together. So I’ve just got to be better.”
The Nuggets missed 12 of their last 14 shots, two nights after they missed 12 of their last 26. They were held to 11 points in the fourth quarter. Adelman was happy with the looks they generated.
“In Toronto before Jonas got hurt, I thought we started to see a little bit of what we could be,” he said before the game. “We loaded him up on the post a little bit, and he was really good in the short roll. He hit the offensive glass. And then that’s gone. There’s no complaining here. It’s just, it’s a mystery sometimes even for the head coach. You just have to go out there, demand that we play super-hard, up to our standard, and go from there.”
An observation Adelman made in Toronto benefitted his team again as it tried to overcome the odds. In that first contest without Jokic, the Nuggets somehow escaped with a win despite shooting 28% in the second half. “But we shot it,” Adelman pointed out afterward. “And if you shoot it, you’re not turning it over.”
They finished with only nine turnovers Friday. But they could only generate four points in the last 9:48. Then one final Cleveland offensive rebound bit them in the glass. Allen high-pointed a ball and brought it down in traffic, then found Donovan Mitchell for a dunk, doubling the Cavaliers’ lead with 42 seconds left.
They finished with 14 off 23 second-chance points.
“Offensive boards obviously hurt us, but I mean, we’re undersized,” Watson said. “So we knew that was gonna be a challenge coming into the game. To be honest with you, the only thing I can say is (we need to) just make more timely shots, make more timely baskets. We made a lot. We missed a lot of good looks.”
Want more Nuggets news? Sign up for the Nuggets Insider to get all our NBA analysis.