Home is usually a sanctuary for NBA teams, but Ball Arena has become a house of horrors for the Denver Nuggets.
Denver has dropped four straight on its home court — three to teams with losing records — but have won seven in a row on the road, so four straight games away from home, beginning at the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday night in Indianapolis, suit the Nuggets just fine.
“I guess the only positive about tonight is we’re going back on the road,” head coach David Adelman said Monday after the Nuggets’ 131-121 loss to Dallas. “It seems like we played well in other people’s gyms. We got to figure out what we’re doing here, because we have not played well in Denver.”
Adelman may be short another player after Jamal Murray suffered a sprained right ankle early in the second half against the Mavericks. Murray went to the locker room, returned to play seven more minutes, but didn’t play in the fourth quarter.
Murray is listed as questionable and could become the third Denver starter sidelined. Christian Braun (left ankle sprain) and Aaron Gordon (right hamstring) were injured in mid-November and both are weeks away from returning. Julian Strawther (back) hasn’t played since Nov. 15.
Denver still has Nikola Jokic, who leads the team in scoring (29.0 points per game), rebounds (12.8) and assists (11.1). Jokic entered Tuesday sixth in the NBA in scoring and first in rebounding and assists.
The Nuggets got a boost Monday from Spencer Jones, who scored a career-high 28 points, and Peyton Watson has played well starting for Braun.
“We have a deep locker room, everybody can play,” Bruce Brown said.
Wednesday will be the second and final matchup between the teams. Denver beat the Pacers 117-100 on Nov. 8, its last home win, during a 1-13 start for the reigning Eastern Conference champions.
Indiana is 3-4 since that brutal start, which includes a two-game winning streak before losing to Cleveland on Monday night. The Pacers held three opponents to an average of 94.7 points before the Cavaliers dropped 135 on them.
All four of Indiana’s wins have come at home, where the team is 4-7.
“We’ve been physical, we’ve done a reasonably good job of keeping people off the free-throw line when we’ve had success,” Indiana head coach Rick Carlisle told The Fan Morning Show on Tuesday. “Our rebounding has been better, you know, certainly with the exception of (Monday) night.”
The Pacers have dealt with several impactful injuries, starting with Tyrese Haliburton suffering a torn Achilles in Game 7 of the NBA Finals in June. In addition to Haliburton being out for the season, Obi Toppin (foot surgery) has played just three games, Aaron Nesmith (knee) has been sidelined since Nov. 13 and T.J. McConnell missed the first 10 games with a hamstring injury.
McConnell played just six minutes Monday night but Carlisle said he didn’t suffer a setback; rather, he was feeling the effects of playing back-to-back games over the weekend.
“The hope is he’ll be ready for Wednesday, but there’s no injury,” Carlisle said postgame.
Indiana is led in scoring by Pascal Siakam (24.1), Bennedict Mathurin (21.1) and Andrew Nembhard (17.5).
–Field Level Media
