![\"Peyton](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776472075_563_GettyImages-2247954916-e1770113127725.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Peyton Watson during a game against the Houston Rockets in November 2025<\/p>\n
The Denver Nuggets are gearing up to face the Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a> in Game 1 of the first round of the NBA playoffs.<\/p>\n These two teams meet again. Fierce division rivals, Minnesota and Devner always bring their best in each meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n Fans often think back to the playoff series from two years ago, when Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards<\/a> drove the dagger into the Nuggets in Game\u00a0 7 at Ball Arena.\u00a0<\/p>\n Will Denver exact revenge? Will Minnesota rinse and repeat?\u00a0<\/p>\n We\u2019ll find out starting tomorrow in a game that promises to produce plenty of theatrics. After all, it\u2019s the least you can expect from a good-old fashion first round series.\u00a0<\/p>\n Either of these teams have the potential to make a deeper fun, but because they face each other round one, one team will ultimately get booted from the tournament in disappointing fashion.\u00a0<\/p>\n As Game 1 marches closer, there is some injury news to both sides that can impact how this battle begins.<\/p>\n Denver Nuggets Get News on Rising Star Swingman<\/p>\n The Nuggets have had a whacky season. They started well and kept it up for a little while. Then the calendar turned to 2026. Then Denver had a roughly 40-game stretch where it was a .500 basketball team. Let that sink in for just a second.\u00a0<\/p>\n A Nikola Jokic<\/a>-led team was just meh for a long stretch of the season. For a while, it even felt like the Nuggets may slip into the play-in, especially when losses were lumped together with Peyton Watson\u2019s<\/a> hamstring injury.\u00a0<\/p>\n Watson, 23, averaged 14.6 points per game while shooting a touch over 41% from the 3-point line in the regular season. That is quite the increase from his roughly eight points per game and 35% from 3 last season.\u00a0<\/p>\n Watson appeared to be the ideal successor to the traded Michael Porter Jr.<\/a> \u2014 but then he got hurt \u2026 and hurt again.\u00a0<\/p>\n Watson suffered a hamstring strain on two different occasions this season, limiting him to just 54 games in the regular season. After a long absence, the Nuggets were thrilled to get Watson back in March, just in time for a bit of a push before the playoffs.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, reaggravated the injury late last month \u2014 just when the Nuggets were hoping to incorporate the young rising star into the offense more as they went on a winning streak to close the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n Missing Watson was the only negative of the Nuggets\u2019 late season rally.\u00a0<\/p>\n Will Watson Be Ready for Game 1?<\/p>\n Unfortunately for the Nuggets, Watson will not suit up<\/a> for Game 1 against the Timberwolves. He has been ruled out once again with a hamstring strain.\u00a0<\/p>\n Without Watson, Denver has placed added responsibilities on forwards Christian Braun<\/a> and Tim Hardaway Jr.<\/a> Their play has come and gone, especially offensively, but Denver perhaps remains optimistic Braun and Hardaway Jr. can catch a rhythm in the postseason.\u00a0<\/p>\n With Jokic often garnering so much attention, Braun and Hardaway Jr. will likely get plenty of good looks from the perimeter. Let\u2019s see if they can knock them down consistently.\u00a0<\/p>\n For now Watson remains out indefinitely, a bummer for the Nuggets.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tAdel Ahmad<\/a> Adel is a writer with over five years of experience covering the NBA. His work has appeared on various media platforms, both national and local. More about Adel Ahmad<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Nuggets\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Peyton Watson during a game against the Houston Rockets in November 2025 The Denver Nuggets are gearing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3781],"tags":[7,301,187,3943,6,302],"class_list":{"0":"post-712817","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-nuggets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-denver","10":"tag-denver-nuggets","11":"tag-denvernuggets","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-nuggets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116422883246140533","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712817","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=712817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}