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The Denver Nuggets appear to have caught a major break ahead of one of their biggest remaining regular-season games.
The Thunder will be without 10 players against Denver, including Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren, Isaiah Hartenstein, Alex Caruso, Cason Wallace, Ajay Mitchell, Isaiah Joe, Jaylin Williams and Thomas Sorber, after the team released its latest injury report.
OKC players out tomorrow vs Denver:
SGA
Jalen Williams
Chet Holmgren
Isaiah Hartenstein
Alex Caruso
Cason Wallace
Ajay Mitchell
Isaiah Joe
Jaylin Williams
Thomas Sorber
EDIT: Lu Dort is NOT out. I’m so used to typing out lineups with Dort in there. My mistake.
That is significant news for Denver because this game still matters a great deal on the Nuggets’ side. The Thunder already clinched the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference on Wednesday, while Denver enters the matchup having won 10 straight and holding a 1.5-game lead over both the Los Angeles Lakers and Houston Rockets for the No. 3 seed.
For a Nuggets team trying to avoid late movement in the bracket, Friday suddenly looks like a major opening.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, Jalen Williams, Cason Wallace, Isaiah Hartenstein, Ajay Mitchell, Alex Caruso, Isaiah Joe and Jaylin Williams are OUT tomorrow for the Thunder.
OKC trying to make sure the Nuggets and Spurs end up on the same side of the bracket.
Why this is such a good spot for Denver
This is not just about one star sitting. If the injury report holds, Oklahoma City will be down a huge chunk of its core rotation and several of its most important two-way players. Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams and Holmgren alone account for the Thunder’s top-end scoring, playmaking and rim protection, while Hartenstein, Caruso, Wallace and Joe are all important rotation pieces.
That changes the complexion of the game.
Denver, meanwhile, is playing its best basketball of the season at the right time. NBA.com noted Thursday that the Nuggets’ 10-game winning streak is their longest of the Nikola Jokic era, and that the run has pushed them from sixth place a few weeks ago into control of the No. 3 seed race.
So even if Oklahoma City still has enough talent to be dangerous, this is clearly a more favorable matchup for Denver than it would have been against a full-strength Thunder team.
Thunder have less at stake than the Nuggets do
The context matters here.
Oklahoma City handled its biggest regular-season business already by clinching the West’s top seed and the NBA’s best record. NBA.com highlighted that milestone Thursday after the Thunder’s win over the Clippers. In other words, OKC has every reason to prioritize rest and health heading into the playoffs.
Denver is in a very different position.
The Nuggets are not chasing Oklahoma City or San Antonio anymore, but they still have something valuable to protect. According to the current standings, Denver sits third in the West at 52-28, ahead of both the Lakers and Rockets at 50-29. A win over a short-handed Thunder team would move the Nuggets one step closer to securing that spot and avoiding unnecessary drama at the end of the regular season.
That is what makes this more than a routine late-season injury update. For Denver, this is the kind of schedule break contenders hope to get in the final week.
Denver still has to take advantage
The obvious caution is that “good news” before tipoff does not guarantee anything.
Even depleted teams can be dangerous this time of year, especially when bench players and younger pieces are trying to prove themselves. And Denver has seen enough strange regular-season finishes over the years to know that a game only gets easier on paper, not on the scoreboard.
Still, there is no question the setup favors the Nuggets much more now than it did 24 hours earlier.
A Denver win would keep the pressure off in the race for third and continue the momentum the team has built during this 10-game surge. It would also allow the Nuggets to keep stacking confidence as the playoffs get closer, rather than turning the final stretch into a seeding scramble.
From Denver’s perspective, this is exactly the kind of update fans wanted to see.
The Thunder have already secured what they needed. The Nuggets have not. And if Oklahoma City really is sitting that many key players, Denver has a clear opportunity to make a pivotal game look much more manageable before the ball even goes up.
Erik Anderson is an award-winning sports journalist covering the NBA, MLB and NFL for Heavy.com. He also focuses on the trading card market. His work has appeared in nationally-recognized outlets including The New York Times, Associated Press , USA Today, and ESPN. More about Erik Anderson
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