The NBA’s fiercest rivalry of recent vintage resumes tonight with Minnesota on the brink of Round 2, Denver seeking its first road win of this first-round rumble and neither Anthony Edwards nor Donte DiVincenzo available to the home team.
It’s the sort of predicament that the visiting Nuggets can certainly identify with. The West’s No. 3 seeds will have their best player for Thursday night’s Game 6, but they certainly haven’t been healthy all season and could well be without Aaron Gordon as well as the player they hoped would be their X-factor in this series.
Peyton Watson.
Officially Watson is week-to-week thanks to a stubborn hamstring injury. Yet league sources have maintained from the jump that Watson, last seen in uniform on April 1, was always likely to miss this entire series. The question now is whether Denver can take advantage of Minnesota’s compromised state and extend its season long enough for Watson to re-emerge.
As much as the Nuggets have missed the sight of a full-speed Gordon, they have pined for Watson, too, over the past month. Cam Johnson wasn’t the only Nugget they were counting on to try to fill the perimeter void left behind when Michael Porter Jr.’s floor-stretching capabilities were shipped off to Brooklyn. Watson’s own gravity and ability as a half-court creator were among the factors that helped convince Nuggets officials that they could withstand Porter’s departure in the name of creating some additional financial flexibility with hopes of assembling a more balanced roster.
“I think that I’m going to be a big part of that and I think that my play will really help determine whether or not we win it all,” Watson told The Stein Line in February before those nagging hamstring issues derailed his strong fourth NBA season. “So I’m preparing myself for the biggest moments of the season and just taking this time now to get better but also to learn. And come June, hopefully we’re raising our second banner.”
Rest assured that both Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray wish they could lean on Watson’s assistance in these elimination game circumstances. The read here, though, is that Watson is headed for a significant summer whether or not he can make it back onto the floor in these playoffs. His name comes up often in leaguewide conversation when the topic turns to July’s most coveted free agents.