The Denver Nuggets have been unlucky with injuries this season, and coach David Adelman just can’t help but laugh at what happened on Sunday.
Ahead of the Nuggets’ game against the Golden State Warriors, Adelman was feeling pretty good since his team was fully healthy. However, he received bad news in the morning when Aaron Gordon woke up and felt tightness in his left hamstring, as reported by Vinny Benedetto of The Denver Gazette.
Gordon was ruled out as a precaution, especially with his history of hamstring injuries. He strained his left hamstring in last year’s playoffs, while he has had a couple of right hamstring strains this season.
Nevertheless, that was just the start of a terrible day for Denver in terms of injuries.
4 More Nuggets Players Injured vs. Warriors
With Gordon out, Peyton Watson was inserted into the starting lineup. He is just coming off a right hamstring injury, so he was limited to just 20 minutes against Golden State.
Spencer Jones, who has been the team’s backup center over the past two weeks, went down with a right hamstring injury in the first quarter. Jones felt tightness, so he had to leave and was ruled out for the rest of the game.
Cam Johnson was the next to go down in the third quarter, which was later confirmed to be back spasms. Johnson was initially listed as questionable to return before being ruled out as well.
GettyCameron Johnson #23 of the Denver Nuggets
With Jones and Johnson out and Watson in foul trouble, Zeke Nnaji was given more minutes. But he took an elbow to the face from Kristaps Porzingis, causing him to land awkwardly on his left hip. He also went to the locker room and never returned. He left Ball Arena in crutches, which is never a good sign.
Coach Adelman can’t help but just laugh at his team’s misfortunes, especially all four injuries happened on the same day.
“It’s just been so funny this year has been like that,” Adelman said, via Bennett Durando of The Denver Post. “It’s never a guard and a forward, or a guard and a center. It’s like, it’s just the whole (position) group goes out.”
Jonas Valanciunas, who has been out of the rotation in their last five games, stepped up to play in the fourth quarter. He’ll be tasked to provide Nikola Jokic some backup minutes, depending on the severity of Jones’ and Nnaji’s injuries.
Jokic Leads Nuggets in Win vs. Golden State
GettyNikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets is a three-time NBA MVP.
Despite all the injuries on Sunday, Jokic and the Nuggets used a dominant second half to earn an easy 113-96 win against the Warriors. “The Joker” finished with 25 points, 15 rebounds and eight assists on a very efficient shooting night. He shot 50.0% from the field, 50.0% from 3-point range and was perfect from the free-throw line.
According to Real App, Jokic now has the most 25-point games on 50/40/90 by a center in NBA history. More importantly, the Nuggets extended their win streak to six, with six games remaining in the regular season.
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