Almost nobody from the Denver Nuggets or the Oklahoma City Thunder rotation played. The game was over in two hours flat and the result was an afterthought but boy did it shape the Western Conference playoff picture.

Denver’s 127-107 win over Oklahoma City was a bench showcase from start to finish. The Nuggets held out Nikola Jokic (right wrist, injury management), Jamal Murray (right shoulder, impingement), Aaron Gordon (right hamstring), Christian Braun (left ankle/right hip flexor) and Cameron Johnson (right ankle), while the Thunder sat Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, Isaiah Hartenstein, Jalen Williams, Alex Caruso and several others. What unfolded was a developmental scrimmage, Denver’s deeper reserve group won comfortably — the NBA’s best offense was fine without their stars, cashing 21 threes as they pulled away from the Thunder in the second half.

Head coach David Adelman admitted he walked into the morning meeting expecting to rally the troops.

“There was a worry for me that they would see we had guys out, they had guys out — what’s your approach gonna be?” Adelman said. “I did walk into the room thinking I was gonna have to give some kind of inspirational talk, but I could tell these guys were ready to play. They saw opportunity out there.”

Jonas Valanciunas started hot and never cooled off, finishing with 23 points on 9-of-14 shooting, 17 rebounds and four assists. Julian Strawther was fantastic, pouring in 22 points on 8-of-17 shooting with 4-of-7 from deep while handling a larger-than-usual offensive burden. David Roddy was the fourth-quarter closer, scoring 21 points on 8-of-12 shooting including 3-of-6 from deep, with 16 of those points coming in a dominant final period Denver won 37-22 to blow the game open. Curtis Jones chipped in seven points with a pair of steals, and Bruce Brown added 10 points, eight rebounds and six assists in a steady floor-general performance.

Adelman singled out Strawther’s growth but reserved his most colorful praise for Roddy, a former Colorado State star who’s trying to hold on to a spot in the league.

“David’s got an intensity about him. He’s a pro, man,” Adelman said. “Picking up an offense and a defense in a short period of time in the NBA is really hard, and he did it. I remember when he was at CSU, that late-night Saturday game was fun to watch when he used to just blast people near the rim. Great college player, and fun to have him here and have him have that night.”

But the most important games of Denver’s Friday night happened outside the Mile High City.

TEAM EFFORT

JV: 23 PTS / 17 REB / 4 AST / 2 BLK
Julian: 22 PTS (4 3PM) / 4 REB / 3 AST / 2 STL / 1 BLK
David: 21 PTS (3 3PM) / 2 STL / 1 BLK
THJ: 13 PTS (3 3PM) / 3 AST / 1 STL
Jalen: 13 PTS (3 3PM) / 4 REB / 4 AST
Bruce: 10 PTS / 8 REB / 6 AST / 2 STL pic.twitter.com/1Mc3uB5xTh

— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) April 11, 2026

Seeking the No. 3 seed

The win moves Denver to 53-28, sitting a game above the Lakers in the race for the Western Conference’s No. 3 seed with one game remaining in the regular season.

The math had been steep for the three seed for weeks, but a crushing 43-point Lakers loss to the Thunder a week ago — combined with injuries to Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves that will sideline both for the remainder of the regular season — blew the door wide open for the Nuggets in the middle of their hottest stretch of the year. Eleven straight wins later, Denver controls its own destiny.

It took some help from elsewhere Friday, too. Minnesota, locked into the No. 6 seed with nothing tangible to play for, knocked off a hot Houston team to drop the Rockets to 51-30. That result, combined with Denver’s win and the head-to-head tiebreaker the Nuggets hold over Houston, officially locks the Rockets into the No. 5 seed.

But the Lakers didn’t cooperate. L.A. handled Phoenix to improve to 52-29, keeping the pressure on Denver heading into Sunday. Because the Lakers hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Nuggets, a scenario where both teams finish with the same record sends L.A. to the No. 3 seed and Denver to No. 4.

The difference between the three and four seed comes down to opponent: Minnesota in Round 1 at the three, Houston at the four. The No. 3 also keeps Denver on the Spurs’ side of the bracket, avoiding OKC entirely until the Western Conference Finals. The No. 4 puts them on the same side as the reigning champion Thunder. The Nuggets have clinched home court in the first round either way — but the path through the West changes dramatically.

Denver’s magic number for the No. 3 seed is one. If the Nuggets win Sunday at San Antonio, they clinch it. A Lakers loss to Utah would also do the trick — though the Jazz have been tanking for months.

There’s a Spurs wrinkle worth watching, too. Denver’s win over San Antonio last Saturday helped accelerate the clinching of the top two seeds, which is partly why OKC’s lineup Friday looked like an exhibition. But that same dynamic creates an interesting incentive for the Spurs on Sunday: if San Antonio beats Denver and the Lakers beat Utah, the Nuggets fall to the No. 4 seed — and onto OKC’s side of the bracket, away from the Spurs. San Antonio wouldn’t be playing for their own position. They’d be playing to avoid potentially meeting Denver in the second round.

“It was just important to come out here, be aggressive,” Strawther said of Friday’s win. “We needed that for the three seed.”

Nikola Jokic sits

The biggest decision of Denver’s weekend has nothing to do with Friday’s scoreboard and everything to do with a three-time MVP’s right wrist and a rule nobody likes

Jokic sat out Friday’s game listed with an issue that’s bugged him for years. He’s played in 64 games this season. Under the NBA’s 65-game rule — implemented as part of the 2023 collective bargaining agreement to combat load management, it gained urgency after Joel Embiid won the 2023 MVP despite playing just 66 games — players must appear in at least 65 games, and log 20 or more minutes in at least 63 of those, to be eligible for MVP, All-NBA, Defensive Player of the Year and Most Improved Player.

That structure offers Jokic a lifeline. Because he’s logged 20-plus minutes in all 64 of his appearances this season, he’s already well past the 63-game threshold on the minutes side. That means if he suits up Sunday in San Antonio — even for as few as 15 minutes — he’d have 65 games played with 64 of those carrying 20-plus minutes, satisfying both prongs of the rule easily. He just needs to be on the floor, but anything other than full gas could open the door to the Spurs if they are trying to send Denver through OKC.

The ideal Friday scenario would have been for the Lakers to lose to Phoenix. A Lakers loss plus Denver’s win would have clinched the No. 3 seed outright, making Sunday’s game entirely meaningless from a standings perspective. In that world, Jokic could have logged his 15 minutes, checked the awards box, and the Nuggets could have rested everyone else and entered the playoffs completely fresh. The Lakers’ win erased that luxury. Now Sunday carries real seeding stakes, and Jokic won’t be making a ceremonial cameo — he’ll need to play a game that could have stakes, should the Spurs make there be some.

“We’re gonna have that conversation tomorrow,” Adelman said Friday night. “He went through a ton of treatment today. The success in the playoffs matters more than anything else, but this rule stares at us right now, and so we’ve got to make a proper decision. We need to go in there with a real plan — either it is those minutes, or we say, let’s just move on. And hopefully they get together this summer and understand maybe that there’s outliers to the rule.”

Adelman went further, pointedly critiquing the rule’s blunt application to players who’ve missed time due to legitimate injury rather than rest.

“If Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nikola Jokic both played 64 games and they weren’t All-NBA, we got a problem,” Adelman said. “Two guys that want to play and never come out of a game. That’s not the spirit of what that rule is.”

He added that the final call would be “an adult conversation with Nikola.”

For a player averaging 27.8 points, 12.9 rebounds and 10.9 assists per game — leading the NBA in both rebounds and assists — missing the ballot entirely would be absurd. Jokic himself has been vocal about his distaste for the rule in the past.

“I just don’t like it, how it forces players to play even if they’re injured, if they want to achieve something,” Jokic said when the rule first took effect in 2023-24.

Two years later, the rule is staring him down after he missed a month with a knee injury. And the only reason he even has a shot at this is because an ice storm in Memphis postponed one game from when he was hurt to when he had returned. The Nuggets have real reasons beyond bureaucratic compliance to put him on the floor, but should they?

What’s next for the Nuggets?

The Nuggets’ regular season ends Sunday in San Antonio against the locked-in No. 2-seeded Spurs. Every indication is that the game matters for Denver — both for the No. 3 seed and for Jokic’s awards eligibility. Whether Murray, Gordon, Braun or Johnson join him remains an open question that hinges on Saturday’s treatment sessions.

“It’ll be each individual to themselves,” Adelman said. “All those guys are banged up. They all get treatment tomorrow before we fly to San Antonio… the other layer to that is, if he plays, it takes minutes away from some of the young guys. I have to decide who gets that opportunity. It’s the last chance for some of these guys to play. These are NBA games, and any time anybody can get minutes in an NBA game, it helps their career.”

Denver has won 11 straight, clinched home-court advantage in the first round, and is one win away from the seed it wants. Sunday in San Antonio is the final test — meh maybe a quiz — before the real thing begins.