{"id":385893,"date":"2026-01-02T02:04:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T02:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/385893\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T02:04:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T02:04:07","slug":"nuggets-could-be-without-entire-opening-night-starting-lineup-against-cavs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/385893\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuggets could be without entire opening night starting lineup against Cavs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The Denver Nuggets have been one of the best teams in basketball this season. They\u2019ve emerged as one of the favorites to come out of the Western Conference behind the Oklahoma City Thunder. Theoretically, this should be a good test for a <a href=\"http:\/\/fearthesword.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> team on Friday that\u2019s coming off two straight impressive wins. However, the team that the Cavs will be facing won\u2019t be close to the group that has been so good this season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Denver will be without four members of their opening night starting five. Perennial MVP candidate Nikola Joki\u0107 will be missing the game with a hyperextended left knee. Cameron Johnson (knee), Aaron Gordon (hamstring), and Christian Braun (ankle) are the other starters missing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Jamal Murray is the only starter who might play on Friday. He is currently listed as probable for Friday\u2019s game as he\u2019s dealing with a right ankle sprain.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Denver will also be without backup center Jonas Valanciunas (calf). This leaves them with a front-court rotation of just Payton Watson (whose natural position is guard), Specer Jones, Zeke Nnaji, and DaRon Holmes (who\u2019s played just four NBA games in his career). This is something that the Cavs front court should be able to exploit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Despite the injuries, the Nuggets have shown that they can be a worthy opponent. They\u2019re coming off an impressive <a href=\"https:\/\/www.raptorshq.com\/raptors-scores-results\/49032\/raptors-ring-in-the-new-year-with-loss-to-the-depleted-nuggets\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">106-103 win<\/a> against the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.raptorshq.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Toronto Raptors<\/a> on New Year\u2019s Eve.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Friday should be a good chance for them to keep their momentum going. Cleveland has played well in three of their last four outings. They showed something in the first three quarters in the Christmas Day loss to the <a href=\"http:\/\/postingandtoasting.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New York Knicks<\/a> and have backed it up with good play against the <a href=\"http:\/\/poundingtherock.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">San Antonio Spurs<\/a> and the <a href=\"http:\/\/brightsideofthesun.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Phoenix Suns<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Denver Nuggets have been one of the best teams in basketball this season. They\u2019ve emerged as one&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,30981,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-385893","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-nba-news","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}