The Denver Nuggets are digging deep, finding ways to win in a challenging part of their season.

With Nikola Jokic, Cam Johnson, and Jonas Valanciunas already sidelined (though Johnson was on the floor pregame for a shooting workout), the Nuggets were already down significant players. This time, Jamal Murray and Christian Braun, missed the game for varying reasons, Murray with illness and Braun with his ankle injury. That ankle seems to be giving him more trouble than expected in his rehab and there’s a chance Braun misses more games intermittently until he’s back to a higher level of comfort.

That forced the Nuggets to dig deep, and they still managed to find a way against the Milwaukee Bucks, led by superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo. Giannis was great tonight, but the Nuggets mitigated how great he was with some excellent defense in a 108-104 win.

Aaron Gordon started at center tonight and effectively matched minutes with Giannis, attempting to curtail the impact that the Greek Freak had on the game. Easier said than done as Giannis finished +16 in the plus-minus and had a great finish in the box score; however, Gordon never let Giannis off the hook, scoring and creating offense for the Nuggets himself in the first half especially. Gordon also made clutch free throws down the stretch and simply impacted the game at a high level.

His shotmaking remains ridiculous too.

Tim Hardaway Jr. led the Nuggets with 25 points off the bench, shooting an extremely efficient 8-of-12 from the field and 5-of-9 from three. Hardaway also shot five free throws and continues to draw three-shot fouls, an important way for the Nuggets to slow down the game while getting points at the same time. Hardaway simply understands the moment and what the Nuggets have needed from him. He finished +27 in his 35 minutes off the bench tonight, which is a slightly aggressive number of minutes for the veteran.

Joining Hardaway off the bench with tremendous impact was Zeke Nnaji, who switched onto guards defensively, switched onto Giannis, rebounded well, and simply had another high impact game. Nnaji had a double-double with 14 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks, an all-around performance from Nnaji who has turned around his year mid-season with this opportunity. His confidence is higher than it’s been, and that’s allowed him to play through mistakes more consistently and string together important games for the Nuggets sans Jokic and Valanciunas.

Finally, Jalen Pickett just continues to impress. His box score line is solid but unspectacular with 13 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 assists, but the manner in which he’s operating is extremely professional. In 37 minutes, he had just one turnover, making smart decisions, getting off the ball when needed, hitting a couple important three-pointers, and simply doing the right thing. The growth he’s shown parallels that of Nnaji in an expanded role, a layer of expanded confidence.

Denver’s getting enough offense from those guys plus Peyton Watson, who had his first performance in a while not scoring 20 points. Watson finished with 19 and was relatively inefficient. He made some nice plays off the dribble playmaking for others (6 assists) and continues to hit his threes at an impressive clip (4/6 from three) but the twos were a struggle tonight at just 3/13 inside the arc. The Nuggets didn’t go to him down the stretch with the ball in his hands and mostly went to Gordon instead.

The bar is simply rising really high for Watson though. A year ago if Watson put up 19-8-6 it would be big news. Now, it’s just Sunday. He’s making plays off the dribble constantly.

Overall, it’s a tremendous performance from all involved. The Nuggets are now 4-3 since Nikola Jokic went down. They haven’t exactly played a murderer’s row of teams since they’re all in the Eastern Conference, but the reality is Denver’s down about as well as can be expected given the circumstances.

David Adelman was asked about the Nuggets’ win in Philadelphia being a catalyst for the win in Boston and the win last night, especially with Denver’s veterans:

“They saw the complete buy-in…they won the game just by scrapping,” Adelman shared postgame. “It gives confidence to your better guys when they come back because they see the other men in that locker room are capable.”

No matter who’s on the floor for the Nuggets, they’re approaching each game with professionalism and as an opportunity to win. There’s no clocking in right now, which can be easy to do when Jokic is around to get 30-20-10 every other night. The Nuggets have been forced to adopt a new identity: scrapper.

Can they keep it up? Only for a short while. Playing with this level of energy and intensity is unsustainable for 82 games. The Nuggets know that, and they know that they only have to do this for a relatively short span. Cam Johnson was on the court before tipoff going through his shooting warmup. He sustained his injury 20 days ago and was expected to miss roughly 4 to 6 weeks. He won’t be back until late January at the earliest.

Same with Nikola Jokic and Jonas Valanciunas. The Nuggets will have to survive until late January. If they continue playing like this though, they might just get it done.