Playoff-bound Nuggets, jockeying for position, take on undermanned Grizzlies
The Denver Nuggets will continue jockeying for Western Conference playoff positioning on Wednesday night, visiting a Memphis Grizzlies team on a much different trajectory heading into the final month of the regular season.
Denver, playing the second leg of a back-to-back set, enters the night tied with Minnesota for fifth place in the tight West standings and already has clinched a postseason berth. The Nuggets also are one game up on fourth-place Houston in the win column, but one game behind the Rockets in the loss column, following Denver's 124-96 romp over Philadelphia on Tuesday.
With his team dominating the 76ers throughout, Nuggets coach David Adelman had the luxury of spreading minutes extensively in the first part of the back-to-back. Ten Denver players saw at least 12:59 of action, and no one exceeded leading scorer Christian Braun's 27:15.
Braun led the Nuggets with 22 points. Nikola Jokic, in contention for his fourth NBA Most Valuable Player award, finished with eight points, seven rebounds and 14 assists in nearly 25 minutes.
"First game of a back-to-back, we just continued to play really (well)," Jokic said in his postgame media availability, citing Denver's effort in a difficult stretch ahead of the Tuesday contest.
Before meeting the 76ers, the Nuggets took on six consecutive games against playoff contenders, bookended with a win and overtime loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, who are in third place and 1 1/2 games ahead of the Nuggets in the West.
Despite finishing 3-3 in that stretch, Jokic said the team felt confident about its performance and carried it into the new week.
"Hopefully, we continue to play like this, and maybe we'll find some kind of rhythm," he said.
Memphis, however, finds itself out of tune.
The Grizzlies limp into the contest against the Nuggets on an eight-game losing streak, matching the franchise's longest slump since it dropped eight straight in the 2018-19 season.
Monday's 132-107 loss at Chicago marked Memphis' fourth double-digit defeat over its past five games, and was the seventh consecutive outing in which the Grizzlies allowed 120 points or more.
Memphis coach Tuomas Iisalo said following the Chicago game that the Grizzlies are "a few guys down" -- an understatement considering how plagued by injuries the squad has been.
Zach Edey, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Santi Aldama and Scotty Pippen Jr. have been shut down for the remainder of the season because of injuries. Brandon Clarke (calf) has appeared in just two games all season -- both in late December -- and Ja Morant (elbow) last played on Jan. 21.
The Grizzlies also were without GG Jackson II (foot) and Ty Jerome (shoulder) on Monday, leaving Cedric Coward to carry the scoring load at 17 points.
The 6-foot-5 Coward was slowed by his own injuries, missing 11 of 13 games from Feb. 10 through March 12, but Monday's effort marked his highest scoring output since Jan. 28.
Coward is averaging 13.3 points and 6.2 rebounds per game. The first-year guard out of Washington State, who began his college career at Division III Willamette, delivered a 16-rebound game last week against the Philadelphia 76ers.
"At his size, he is able to do some intriguing things," Iisalo told reporters last week. "He is a good on-ball creator. You'll see him go full court, get the rebound, which he is very good at for his position."