The Matchup<\/p>\n
PositionNuggetsPistonsAdvantagePGJamal MurrayCade CunninghamNuggetsSGJalen PickettDuncan RobinsonClippersSFPeyton WatsonAusar ThompsonClippersPFSpencer JonesTobias HarrisClippersCNikola JokicJalen DurenEvenBenchBruce Brown, Jonas Valanciunas, Tim Hardaway Jr., Christian BraunIsaiah Stewart, Ronald Holland II, Caris Levert, Jaden Ivey, Daniss JenkinsEven<\/p>\n
Injury report: Christian Braun \u2013 questionable (ankle), Aaron Gordon \u2013 out (hamstring), Cameron Johnson (knee), Tamar Bates \u2013 out (foot), Curtis Jones \u2013 out (G-League); Caris LeVert \u2013 questionable (illness), Wendell Moore \u2013 out (G-League), Tolu Smith \u2013 out (G-League), Chaz Lanier \u2013 out (G-League), Bobi Klintman \u2013 out (G-League), Isaac Jones \u2013 out (G-League).<\/p>\n
The Three Things<\/p>\n
The thing to watch for: All eyes on Christian<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/USATSI_28115927-1024x683.jpg\")
Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
With Braun being officially listed as questionable for tonight\u2019s game after being listed as doubtful for the last contest it would appear he will play tonight. It\u2019ll be CB\u2019s first game since January 9th when he first attempted to return from his injury but lasted just three games. Prior to that stint, Braun hadn\u2019t played since November. His failed first attempt to return from the injury has been chalked up to not being there with the trust level in his ankle. Three weeks later we can only hope he\u2019s regained that trust. In his January games it was clear he wasn\u2019t ready and without his explosiveness his game was severely muted. Here\u2019s hoping Braun is out running and dunking from the jump.<\/p>\n
The thing to remember: Caris Levert could be back too<\/p>\n
Levert has been dealing with an illness that has kept him out for two weeks, so he too was absent from the last Nuggets\/Pistons tilt, but he is also listed as questionable tonight. Caris has been a bit of a thorn in the side of the Nuggets in past years with multiple 20 point or more performances against them since 2021. He brings a necessary scoring element to an otherwise underwhelming (at least on offense) Pistons bench. With Levert and Jaden Ivey, Detroit has a potent backcourt combo off the bench. Given Braun would be making his first game back from injury, and that the Pistons might bring a lot of perimeter scoring pressure with their bench unit, I won\u2019t be surprised if CB comes off the bench himself tonight.<\/p>\n
The thing to bet: Denver Nuggets ML (+180)<\/p>\n
The Nuggets came within two points of beating the Pistons without Nikola Jokic and Christian Braun. In that game Jonas Valanciunas had 16 points and 16 rebounds. Jalen Duren is a fantastic player and earned a well-deserved all-star bid this season, but he\u2019s giving up some serious beef matching up against the likes of Joker. I think Nikola tips the scales in Denver\u2019s favor tonight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Denver Nuggets are back out on the road again. That might be just what the doctor ordered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3781],"tags":[877,7,909,561,301,187,3943,188,1018,912,762,6,253,302,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-580231","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-nuggets","8":"tag-aaron-gordon","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-cade-cunningham","11":"tag-christian-braun","12":"tag-denver","13":"tag-denver-nuggets","14":"tag-denvernuggets","15":"tag-detroit-pistons","16":"tag-jaden-ivey","17":"tag-jalen-duren","18":"tag-jamal-murray","19":"tag-nba","20":"tag-nikola-jokic","21":"tag-nuggets","22":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116008469184612881","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580231","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=580231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}