So decidedly losing the early battle for competitive edge isn't the only factor that doomed the Golden State Warriors' spirited yet arduous comeback efforts against the Denver Nuggets on Friday.

Draymond Green and Klay Thompson were playing under a load restriction, notching 27 minutes and 24 minutes of court time, respectively. Their ongoing ramp up stems from scrimmage and exhibition action Green and Thompson missed during preseason, albeit for much different reasons. Green was away from the team for seven days after his nasty punch to Jordan Poole, while Thompson was held out of all 5-on-5 play until a a week before tipoff of the regular season due to his ongoing recovery from two-and-a-half years lost to injury.

The defending champions weren't just absent a few extra minutes of court time from a pair of high-impact starters on Friday, but Golden State's entire rotation past its top-six—in a state of complete flux during training camp, remember—was affected as a result.

“This was kind of a good game for us to be honest with you,” Kerr said on the postgame podium. “I feel like we got over a little but of a hump conditioning-wise. We hadn't played a game like this yet. We need to bump guys up and get them into high minutes, not the just the total minutes, but the type of minutes they were. That was a physical, high intensity game. We needed that. I think we'll be better for it going forward.we needed to get guys in [physical, high-intensity] minutes. I think we'll be better for it going forward.”

Moses Moody, the Warriors' 11th man in each of their first two games of 2022-23, took Jonathan Kuminga's rotation spot in the second half. The sophomore wing played 12 straight minutes after entering for the first time late in the third quarter, on the floor for the most pivotal moments of his team's rally. All of Golden State's other reserves, by contrast, had a plus-minus of -10 or worse.

Call that second-half lineup switch another work-in-progress as Golden State's veterans get back to their typical minutes load.

“The second unit stuff, that's gonna all shake out here over the next few weeks. We don't have a set rotation yet. We're trying a lot of different people,” Kerr said. “It's affected also by the minutes restriction for Klay and Draymond, so that's gonna take a little while to sort out.”

The Warriors' bench lineups were always going to shift over the 82-game grind, with Kerr pushing buttons until finding the right combinations for playoff time. The realities of an 11-man numbers crunch are a problem for Golden State now, but won't be when it matters most—hopefully, just like its fight and intensity after the opening tip against Denver.