The Denver Nuggets front office spent the offseason adding depth to the roster, and the efforts have paid off early this season.
Denver has won seven games in a row, twice without two starters, and will try to make it eight straight when it hosts the Chicago Bulls on Monday night.
The latest victory came at Minnesota on Saturday night, a 123-112 win without starters Christian Braun (left ankle) and Cameron Johnson (biceps strain) available. Braun, a guard, is expected to miss at least six weeks, but forward Johnson’s timeline is shorter.
Head coach David Adelman inserted Peyton Watson and Tim Hardaway Jr. into the starting lineup and still went nine deep, showing off the new-found depth on this 10-2 team.
“We’re missing two guys and we still manage to play really quality minutes, first unit and the bench unit,” said Nuggets superstar center Nikola Jokic, who had 27 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists against the Timberwolves. “It’s been really good for us at the beginning of the season.”
Jokic is averaging a team-high 28.7 points a game and leads the NBA in rebounds (13.0 per game) and assists (10.9) while averaging 34.2 minutes a night. Jamal Murray (22.1 points) is second on the team in scoring and Aaron Gordon (19.9) is third.
More importantly for Denver is eight players are averaging more than 22 minutes a night and the ninth, Jonas Valanciunas, is logging 12.5 minutes a game.
“Just to help our main people not get run into the ground,” Adelman said of spreading out the minutes.
The Nuggets are at an advantage because Monday night will be the second straight game they are facing a team playing the second game of a back-to-back — and one that went into double overtime. Chicago lost 150-147 at Utah on Sunday night in guard Coby White’s first game of the season.
The Bulls took another hit when Tre Jones missed Sunday’s game with an ankle injury.
White, who missed the first 11 games with a calf injury, scored 27 points in 30 minutes while under a 30-minute restriction. White was 5-for-14 from the field and he hit all 14 of his free-throw attempts, including two with 8.4 seconds left that tied the game in the second OT. He is not expected to face the Nuggets due to injury management.
White, who averaged a career-best 20.4 points last season, is part of a team building around youth. The Bulls have just two players older than 27 years – guard Jevon Carter (30) and center Nikola Vucevic (35) — and sometimes the inexperience shows. Chicago opened the season with five consecutive wins but have lost five straight and six of their last seven.
“We’re not the most talented team out there,” said forward Isaac Okoro, 24. “We got to beat teams with our hustle, our grit, being relentless for the whole 48 minutes of the game, with our toughness.
“No one on our team is going to come in and score 30, 40 points every single night. As a collective, we all have to buy in as a team. Everyone has to come and contribute in whatever their role is. Everyone knows their role on the team. They’ve got to be great in that role.”
