In a Blowout Loss to Utah, Denver's Closing Five Had No Starters At All
Denver's preseason loss to Utah said less about Jokic's five than about who finishes games when the outcome no longer matters.
Denver fell to Utah 109-97 in a preseason game that got away in the third quarter and never came back. The story of the night wasn't who started — it was that the five players who finished it were five reserves.
A night decided before it should have been
At the CU Boulder preseason showcase, Utah opened with a 12-0 run from the 6:15 mark of the first quarter to the 4:11 mark, turning 11-15 into 23-17, and Denver never fully recovered. An 8-0 answer carried the Nuggets from the end of the first quarter into the second, trimming the gap to 39-32, but Utah's own 8-0 run in the third, from 2:47 to 0:48, pushed the margin back to 88-77. Utah led by as many as 18; Denver's largest lead was 6. The final was 109-97.
The group that finished the game
With the outcome settled, Adelman's last five minutes belonged to Alpha Diallo, DaRon Holmes II, Lonnie Walker IV, Ryan Nembhard and Trevon Brazile — no starters among them — and the five still on the floor at the final buzzer went deeper still: Bryce Hopkins, Coleman Hawkins, Dane Goodwin, Emanuel Miller and Lonnie Walker IV. Nembhard and Miller each scored 5 points in the fourth quarter, and Miller's tip-in layup at the buzzer set the final margin. None of it changed the result, but it marked clearly who Adelman trusted with minutes once the game had nothing left to decide.
Numbers that favor depth over the first five
Denver's bench outscored its starters 55 to 37. The best plus-minus marks on the night went to Marvin Bagley III (+4 in 14 minutes), Nembhard (+3 in 17) and Julian Strawther (+3 in 20) — three reserves. The worst went the other way: Nikola Jokic finished -13 in 15 minutes, Christian Braun -13 in 15, and Hopkins -10 in 12. Strawther's 14 points led Denver but came on 6-for-13 shooting and 1-for-6 from three. Aaron Gordon scored 12 on a clean 4-for-8 in only 10 minutes, yet was still on the floor for a -5.
What it's worth before the games start counting
This was the first half of a home-and-home: Denver plays Utah again on October 6, the same date Murray and Spencer Jones are each estimated to return. Nothing about 97-109 touches the record Denver carries into its regular-season opener at Oklahoma City on October 22, but it is one more look at how the bench fits once the full lineup is finally on the floor together.
Did Denver's loss to Utah count toward its regular-season record?
No. It was a preseason game at the CU Boulder showcase, and Denver's record is 0-0 ahead of the regular-season opener at Oklahoma City on October 22.
Who played well for Denver against the Jazz?
Julian Strawther led Denver with 14 points off the bench, and Marvin Bagley III, Ryan Nembhard and Strawther were the only Nuggets with a positive plus-minus.
