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The Nuggets have downgraded Jonas Valanciunas (right calf strain) to out for Friday’s game against Cleveland. Jamal Murray (right ankle sprain) and Julian Strawther (illness) are probable.
Bennett Durando: Julian Strawther (back) has been cleared to play. Doesn’t mean he will tonight, obviously, but it’s the first time he’s active in exactly one month.
David Adelman said Julian Strawther “went pretty hard” at practice today. He’s going to check in with medical tomorrow before the Rockets game. “I’m very very hopeful that this week is the week,” Adelman said.
Brendan Vogt: Nuggets Injury Report - 12/3 @ Pacers Nikola Jokić - PROBABLE (left wrist sprain) Jamal Murray - QUESTIONABLE (right ankle sprain) Christian Braun, Aaron Gordon, Julian Strawther - OUT (ankle sprain, hamstring strain, back pain)
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Ryan Blackburn: We got a Julian Strawther injury update of sorts today. He's out tonight and isn't close to returning. David Adelman: “Yeah, he's been doing like minimal movement stuff. He was on the exercise machines today. I think it's just a process of the shot working and then seeing where it leads to, just through activity, not basketball activity or physicality. So, at this moment, I really don't have any update on him." "He just woke up with pain and then it just, you know, got considerably worse to the point where anybody that’s had back issues? I have. it sucks. Like, you can't do anything. No mobility, so we're just trying to work our way through it.”
Bennett Durando: David Adelman said Julian Strawther (back) was given medication today and told Adelman he was feeling a bit better. Out tonight, day-to-day. "He's going through it. But if he's reacting well to the medication they're giving him, that's a positive sign."
Vinny Benedetto: Julian Strawther is out for tomorrow's game in New Orleans with low back pain. Nikola Jokic and Cam Johnson are no longer on the injury report. Christian Braun, DaRon Holmes II, Curtis Jones and Tamar Bates remain out.
Katy Winge: The Denver Nuggets are exercising next year’s options for both Julian Strawther and DaRon Holmes. Third-year option for Holmes, fourth-year option for Strawther.
And after spraining his left knee on March 2, he went about his month-long recovery process under the assumption that he would not be a part of Denver's playoff rotation, he told The Denver Post. "That's where my mind was at," Strawther said. "And the staff was transparent with me ... 'We may or may not need you to stay ready.' "The timing of that injury was super tough, understanding that I would be cleared to play either with a game left or two in the regular season. Barely any time to ramp up. So my main thing was just trying to battle back."
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"I thought he held water defensively, too. That was a big deal," Nuggets interim coach David Adelman said. "You want to keep an offensive player out there, but they have to be able to handle their own on the other end. And he did. We didn't have to change schematically, defensively, because he sat down, moved his feet and guarded."
Denver’s lack of depth in this series has had Adelman searching for someone, anyone, to come off the bench and make a meaningful contribution. Strawther has played 54 minutes across the six games, or a little under seven minutes a night. Fourteen of those minutes came in Game 2, when the Nuggets were smoked 149-106 and everyone on the roster got into the game. Thursday’s 20 minutes were his series-high. The Nuggets simply needed someone with fresh legs, and Strawther provided that and a lot more with the season hanging in the balance. “We’re all super happy for him because we know what he’s capable of,” Murray said. “Yoy can see how he can impact a game quickly in a high-pressure moment. His energy really set the tone for us. Everybody kind of realized what was going on, and we were able to build off of it.”
And the Nuggets' recent draft record, to their credit, has been strong. Booth is known around the league as one of the more dogged top executives on the scouting trail. "He's always in the gym," said one Denver ally. "He might leave the owner's box after any game and fly right to some college tournament." Over dinners and drinks with staffers, Booth is always talking basketball. And he's been so confident in his preferred players, it's been somewhat easy to telegraph Denver's draft choices over the years, whether the Nuggets outright promised certain draftees or openly told agents representing other players that their client wouldn't be in consideration because the Nuggets had already zeroed on their target, be it Julian Strawther or DaRon Holmes.
Vinny Benedetto: Jamal Murray, Christian Braun, Michael Porter Jr., Aaron Gordon, Nikola Jokic and Peyton Watson are questionable for tonight’s game against San Antonio. Julian Strawther remains out. Victor Wembanyama, De’Aaron Fox, Devin Vassell and Jeremy Sochan are among the Spurs’ inactives.
