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Nuggets
Denver got the news it didn’t want. The team announced that Aaron Gordon has been diagnosed with a Grade 2 right hamstring strain and will be reevaluated in four-to-six weeks.
It’s a double blow for a Nuggets team already down Christian Braun, who is expected to miss at least another month with a sprained left ankle.
Gordon had just returned Friday in Houston after sitting out Wednesday with bilateral hamstring management.
Three minutes into that game, he pulled up, this time injuring the opposite hamstring from the Grade 2 strain he fought through in last season’s playoffs.
Before the injury, Gordon was playing some of the best basketball of his career. He averaged 20.3 points and 6.3 boards on scorching .536/.452/.879 shooting over 12 games, anchoring Denver’s defense and swinging games
The Nuggets are plus-20.7 per 100 possessions with him on the floor. Without him, they break even. That’s how big his impact has been.
In the meantime, Denver is forced into some experiments, including more Nikola Jokic/Jonas Valanciunas double-big minutes. Jokic admitted the early returns are uneven.
“Sometimes it’s good. Sometimes it’s really bad,” he said. “We need more minutes together.”
Pistons
Jaden Ivey’s long road back finally ended Saturday night, and Detroit made sure it doubled as a celebration.
In his first regular-season game since January 1, the third-year guard helped the Pistons stretch their winning streak to 12 with a clean, steady debut: 10 points, two assists, a steal and just one miss in 15 minutes.
Ivey admitted the emotions hit him hard after nearly 11 months away and two surgeries — a fractured left fibula last season and right knee surgery in October.
“So much gratitude to be out there again,” he said.
Head coach J.B. Bickerstaff echoed that sentiment.
“We’re just happy to have him back,” Bickerstaff told reporters. “This was more celebration of his journey to get back.
“Fifteen minutes isn’t easy to find a rhythm, but he did all the things we needed.”
Detroit used all thirteen active players in the win over Milwaukee, and Bickerstaff said he plans to keep experimenting with a 12-man rotation as he learns his roster.
“Guys are going to have an opportunity because they’ve earned it,” he said.
NBA Draft
Sam Vecenie of The Athletic shared early impressions on the 2026 draft class, including why many scouts currently have Cameron Boozer trailing Darryn Peterson and AJ Dybantsa for the No. 1 spot.
Boozer’s shot creation and at-the-rim finishing remain areas evaluators want to see develop. Nothing alarming, but enough to give Peterson and Dybantsa the early edge.
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