After the Denver Nuggets crushed the Portland Trail Blazers by 54 points last Friday, the team would be unable to follow that up with a win over the Golden State Warriors on Sunday, 128-117. As there is some concern with the Nuggets after the loss to the undermanned Warriors, head coach David Adelman would point out an interesting aspect of the opponent's injury report.
Right before tip-off, which was at an early 12:30 p.m. local time, Golden State had announced that Green was a late scratch with low back tightness. This prompted the Warriors to go with Al Horford, who scored 22 points in the highest scoring game as a member of the team, leading to Adelman admitting how “confusing” it was to see the late injury for Green.
“That was confusing,” Adelman said, via ESPN. “I think that's why we give injury reports. Obviously, the game plan was very different.”
The loss stings for Denver as Golden State was missing arguably their top four players in the known season-ending injury for Jimmy Butler, Stephen Curry, who continues to be out, along with Kristaps Porzingis with an injury, and Green. While it was also Denver's third road game in four days coming out of the All-Star break, there's no denying that the team won't use it as an excuse.
Nikola Jokic gets real on what the Warriors had over the Nuggets
Jokic, who's coming off an injury himself, had a fantastic game where he recorded 35 points, 20 rebounds, 12 assists, three steals, and two blocks. Though he even admitted that Golden State had “better energy,” via Sports Illustrated.
“They had better energy, and since I (subbed into the fourth quarter), I think it was tied score, I missed three, they made three, I had a turnover, they made like a six, 7-0 run quick, and they were up to 13, 11, or whatever. So we really couldn't find an open shot; they were finding open shots, they were making like they did the whole game,” Jokic said.
At any rate, Denver looks to bounce back with their next game on Wednesday night against the Boston Celtics.
