{"id":953778,"date":"2026-11-05T17:46:19","date_gmt":"2026-11-05T17:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/953778\/"},"modified":"2026-11-05T17:46:19","modified_gmt":"2026-11-05T17:46:19","slug":"little-things-lead-to-bryce-hopkins-big-night-for-nuggets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/953778\/","title":{"rendered":"Little things lead to Bryce Hopkins’ big night for Nuggets"},"content":{"rendered":"

The lowlight of Bryce Hopkins<\/a>\u2019s best game of his young NBA career doubled as David Adelman\u2019s favorite play from the rookie on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Late in the first quarter, Hopkins leaked out after contesting Immanuel Quickley\u2019s deep 3-pointer and looked to have an easy bucket. There was just one problem. The 6-foot-7 forward fumbled Nikola Jokic<\/a>\u2019s outlet pass out of bounds, preventing what should\u2019ve been an easy dunk and another Jokic assist.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMy favorite play from Bryce the whole night was the outlet pass he dropped,\u201d Adelman said after the Nuggets\u2019 128-109 win. \u201cYou finally get to play, you make a 3, you\u2019re feeling momentum and then you drop the ball out of bounds. I didn\u2019t see a reaction to that. He just kept playing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hopkins was thrust into the rotation an hour before tipoff when DeMar DeRozan was ruled out with back spasms. Adelman didn\u2019t hesitate to call the rookie\u2019s number.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen somebody is a consistent person on top of the fact that they know who they are when they\u2019re on the court, that goes a long way,\u201d Adelman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey earn that through the respect of being a professional every day. \u2026 That\u2019s half the battle in the NBA when you\u2019re new, and Bryce has done that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old rewarded his coach\u2019s trust by scoring a career-high 18 points on seven shots from the field. He also grabbed four rebounds, recorded a couple of steals and dished out an assist in 27 minutes off the bench, the most of any reserve.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I\u2019m just a very versatile player. I feel like I can create offense whether I\u2019m off the ball or on the ball,\u201d Hopkins said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever the team needs me to do, I feel like I can do it. I feel like my physicality is big for me on the defensive end and on the offensive end. Whatever the team needs me to do, I\u2019m willing to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TorontoToronto Raptors guard Immanuel Quickley, right, drives past Denver Nuggets forward Bryce Hopkins in the second half of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo\/David Zalubowski)<\/p>\n

Despite blowing what should\u2019ve been another Jokic assist, the 49th pick of the most recent draft has quickly earned the trust of some of the team\u2019s most established players.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe played really good basketball, professional basketball,\u201d Jokic said. \u201cHe\u2019s playing winning basketball, and I really believe in him. I think he can help us a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked what constitutes \u201cprofessional\u201d ball, Jokic listed a lot of the little things Hopkins did in his fifth NBA game \u2014 pressuring the ball in the final minutes when the win was all but secured, rebounding, boxing out and fighting through screens. Adelman added Hopkins has been consistent in his player-development and film sessions regardless of the playing time. Those are the kind of things that help a young player stay on the floor around the stars.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe nights that Bryce has not played, there\u2019s been no lack of trust,\u201d Adelman said. \u201cHe\u2019s earned this in the preseason. It\u2019s just the steadiness every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through seven NBA games, Hopkins has started two, came off the bench in three and did not appear in two others. He\u2019s limited to 50 games in uniform as long as he remains on a two-way contract, meaning he will likely spend some time in the G League this season. But Wednesday was the second time he scored in double figures. The Nuggets won his minutes by 11 points.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen things are going good, you have to just stick to your roots and stick to what you\u2019ve been doing. If I\u2019m seeing success in what I\u2019ve been doing, I\u2019ve got to keep doing that stuff,\u201d Hopkins said. \u201cIt\u2019s just going to lead to good results.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The lowlight of Bryce Hopkins\u2019s best game of his young NBA career doubled as David Adelman\u2019s favorite play…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":953779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,71655,3896,590,3906,85],"class_list":["post-953778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bryce-hopkins","tag-david-adelman","tag-nba","tag-nikola-jokic","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953778","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=953778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/953779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=953778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=953778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=953778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}