{"id":511837,"date":"2026-01-02T13:48:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T13:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/511837\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T13:48:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T13:48:14","slug":"3-things-to-watch-for-in-cavs-vs-nuggets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/511837\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Things to watch for in Cavs vs Nuggets"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> are at home for their first game of 2026. They\u2019ll host the Denver Nuggets as they look for their third win in a row.<\/p>\n

Sorry, Cavs fans. If you bought tickets to see Nikola Jokic play on Friday night, then you\u2019ll be disappointed. Jokic went down with a knee injury earlier this week and is already ruled OUT for this matchup.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a rough year for star opponents coming to Cleveland. Cavs fans have already missed out on Stephen Curry and Victor Wembanyama this season. Now, they\u2019ll miss the three-time MVP, as well.<\/p>\n

Denver doesn\u2019t have much experience playing without Jokic. He\u2019s been available for 70+ games in all but one season of his career. It\u2019s hard to tell what this team looks like without him, considering their entire roster construction is built around using him as a hub.<\/p>\n

Joker isn\u2019t the only one who will miss this game. Aaron Gordon, Christian Braun and Cam Johnson are also listed as OUT, while Jamal Murray is probable.<\/p>\n

Kenny Atkinson finally pulled the plug on Lonzo Ball\u2019s place in the rotation. He\u2019s been lapped by Craig Porter Jr. in a move that has reaped immediate rewards.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s see if this sticks.<\/p>\n

Atkinson has cautioned that this move is not permanent and that Ball will get another chance to re-earn minutes in the rotation. But it\u2019s clear that Porter fits what this team needs and is flat-out playing better than Zo.<\/p>\n

Porter\u2019s been hugely impactful recently. Keep an eye on whether he remains as the backup point guard tonight.<\/p>\n

Has this team turned the corner?<\/p>\n

All indicators point towards a happier and healthier 2026 for the Cavs. We don\u2019t want to jinx anything, but the team has been trending in the right direction since the week before Christmas. They\u2019ve picked up two of their best wins of the season since then, with massive wins over the San Antonio Spurs and Phoenix Suns.<\/p>\n

We know that none of this matters until the playoffs. And, the Cavs are far from being out of the woods just yet. But they\u2019ve taken significant steps forward recently, and it\u2019s important they keep on marching forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cleveland Cavaliers are at home for their first game of 2026. They\u2019ll host the Denver Nuggets as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3781],"tags":[7,64205,301,187,3943,6,302],"class_list":{"0":"post-511837","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-nuggets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers-discussion","10":"tag-denver","11":"tag-denver-nuggets","12":"tag-denvernuggets","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-nuggets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115825823279661918","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}