{"id":407126,"date":"2026-01-11T23:13:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T23:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/407126\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T23:13:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T23:13:07","slug":"northwest-notes-gordon-trail-blazers-holiday-bailey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/407126\/","title":{"rendered":"Northwest Notes: Gordon, Trail Blazers, Holiday, Bailey"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Nuggets have been using Aaron Gordon<\/a> off the bench since he returned from a hamstring strain to maximize the value of his limited minutes, writes Bennett Durando of The Denver Post<\/a>. Coach David Adelman wants Gordon to be available to help close out games, so he\u2019s playing him strategically the rest of the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have a minute restriction, if you start somebody, they sit for so long before you put them back in. So this allows me to kind of play with the minutes,\u201d Adelman said after Friday\u2019s loss to Atlanta. He pointed out that a starting lineup with Hunter Tyson<\/a> and DaRon Holmes<\/a> was able to keep the game close until Gordon checked in.<\/p>\n

Gordon logged 24 minutes on Friday, the most he has played in any of the three games since his return after a six-week absence, and finished with 14 points, nine rebounds and five assists. He said the hamstring feels \u201cfine\u201d now, but he\u2019s still adjusting to the unfamiliar role.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just trying to figure out the flow of my minutes, you know? It\u2019s a longer halftime for me right now, for going in at halftime, then coming off the bench out of halftime,\u201d Gordon said. \u201cIt\u2019s a little bit longer for me. So I\u2019m just trying to figure out how I can continue to get my body back and contribute more in the second half. And help my team win. I feel like if I was better in the second half, we would have won that game. At least in the fourth quarter. So I take this one on me.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s more from the Northwest Division:<\/p>\n

The Trail Blazers are on a five-game winning streak, triggering memories of last season\u2019s second-half surge, Sean Highkin of The Rose Garden Report<\/a> states in a subscriber-only story. Injury issues created opportunities for two-way players Sidy Cissoko<\/a> and Caleb Love<\/a>, who have become trusted parts of the rotation. \u201cIt\u2019s just the confidence that these guys are getting,\u201d interim coach Tiago Splitter said. \u201cTrue minutes, meaningful minutes. Knowing that we have a system and a way to play, and we just follow it.\u201d
\nTrail Blazers guard Jrue Holiday<\/a> is close to returning after missing the past 27 games with a right calf strain, according to Joe Freeman of the Oregonian<\/a>. He has been upgraded to questionable for Sunday\u2019s game against New York and could be back on the court for the first time since November 14. Freeman notes that Holiday was originally expected to be reevaluated in one to two weeks, but the injury continued to linger. In 12 games, Holiday is averaging 16.7 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 8.3 assists in 33.4 minutes per night.
\nJazz rookie Ace Bailey<\/a> was only able to play 10 minutes on Wednesday against Oklahoma City as he tried to return from a strained hip flexor. It\u2019s the only time he\u2019s been on the court since suffering the injury on December 26. \u201cYeah, it\u2019s still day to day,\u201d coach Will Hardy told reporters, per Andy Larsen of The Salt Lake Tribune (Twitter link<\/a>). \u201cYou know, he felt like he could go in OKC, and then after his first two shifts, we didn\u2019t love how he looked moving, he didn\u2019t love how he felt, and so we don\u2019t want to put him in a position that hurts him. So we\u2019re taking it day by day. He\u2019s working really hard. He was on the court today. Still got a long way to go.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Nuggets have been using Aaron Gordon off the bench since he returned from a hamstring strain to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407127,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[3891,22565,64,63,726,17431,4699,120243,7217,215784,85],"class_list":["post-407126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-aaron-gordon","tag-ace-bailey","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-caleb-love","tag-daron-holmes","tag-hunter-tyson","tag-jrue-holiday","tag-sidy-cissoko","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407126","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=407126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}