The Nuggets defeated the Utah Jazz on Tuesday night in Salt Lake City, 117-106, for their first win of the 2026 preseason. Their next game is Sunday against the Bulls at Ball Arena. Here are three takeaways from Tuesday’s exhibition.
Free throw parade
The Nuggets have gradually improved over the last couple seasons at being a team that gets to the foul line. The consistently got into the bonus throughout both preseason games against Utah this week. The Jazz played overzealous defense Tuesday, irritating Nikola Jokic enough to pick up an amusing preseason technical foul at one point. For the most part, though, the Nuggets were content to draw fouls and take the easy points Utah was willing to give them. Even Jamal Murray, who prides himself on not being a foul-baiter, couldn’t resist leaning into Darryn Peterson after the rookie left his feet on a shot fake.
Aaron Gordon led the team with 18 points, including a 6-for-7 clip at the free throw line. Cam Johnson added 10. Jokic increased his aggression as a scorer, taking a whopping four shots from the field this time. The starters displayed some poor point-of-attack and pick-and-roll defense in the first half, but they put together a strong second-quarter stint before they were done for the night.
DeMar DeRozan should add even more foul-drawing capability to Denver’s rotation. He tacked on seven points on five shots Tuesday, with the Nuggets winning his 11 minutes by eight.
Adelman tries different second unit
Adelman will rarely do this once the real games begin, but he likes to play an all-bench lineup in the preseason, even for a few minutes during the first half when he’s rotating starters in and out. It provides a clear-cut glimpse of the second unit in its purest form — the team’s sixth man to the 10th man.
That lineup featured Trevon Brazile at power forward in the preseason opener last Sunday, a response to Spencer Jones (left hamstring) being out. This time with Jones still sidelined, Denver put DeRozan at the four and moved Alpha Diallo into the unit. The former EuroLeague wing got an unpromoted shoutout from Adelman for his second-half defensive effort Sunday. He did more than guard in the follow-up performance, contributing eight points including a pair of corner 3s. (His free throws seemingly need some work, if this 0-for-4 night was any indicator.)
The Nuggets felt comfortable enough asking Diallo to size up defensively. He matched up against 6-foot-10 two-time All-Star Jaren Jackson Jr. when Utah played Jackson alongside backup center Mo Bamba.
Julian Strawther’s ability to break the paint continued to stand out. He was the bench’s leading scorer with 15 points on 4-for-7 shooting, and he assisted both of Diallo’s 3s with simple but effective drive-and-kick reads.
The other 2-man game
Three clear sources of offense have developed for that bench: DeRozan’s midrange game, Strawther’s shot creation and the Tyus Jones-Marvin Bagley pick-and-roll. Bagley seems to feel more comfortable receiving pocket passes than lobs, despite his above-the-rim athleticism — Jones has been feeding him on the ground for floaters a lot in the first two exhibitions.
The backup center scored an efficient 10 points Tuesday and was a team-best plus-15. Perhaps the most interesting dynamic for Adelman going forward will be how to narrow down his rotation to 10 players for the start of the season. If DeRozan, Spencer Jones and Bagley are automatic, then three players are competing for the other two spots: Tyus Jones, Strawther and Diallo.
All three of them provide a specific trait that Denver needs, but none of them have proven over a long stretch of time to be multifaceted, making for a tough evaluation process.
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