The Denver Nuggets looked like a team with a renewed commitment to readiness on Sunday night.

A 112-104 preseason win over the Los Angeles Clippers underscored that, but the box score doesn’t fully do justice how seriously the Nuggets went about their business. It was an impressive effort, matched by a strong effort from the Clippers themselves, to give fans on both sides reasons for optimism heading into the 2025-26 regular season.

Let’s talk about why:


Game Flow offered some intrigue

Clock malfunctions at the beginning of the game stifled early momentum. Both teams were a bit rusty out of the gate with the Clippers showing up a bit better early on. Denver needed their subs to pick up the starters a bit, and that’s exactly what happened. Jamal Murray staggered with a second unit that featured Bruce Brown, Tim Hardaway Jr., Peyton Watson, and Jonas Valanciunas, and that group functioned nicely.

Rather than lose the thread, the bench picked up the starters and gave them a substantial break. It was an impressive stretch in the second quarter that impressed me greatly. The Nuggets got stops while Watson and Valanciunas showed an ability to score in the halfcourt. Denver’s defense allowed just 10 points through half of the quarter, including a stretch when Valanciunas and Nikola Jokic played together. There were also stretches of play without a point guard on the floor in which Denver managed just fine.

The Nuggets showed off their versatility. They can play big. They can play small. As long as they’re connected, there will be many ways in which they can approach different matchups throughout the year.

More Three-Pointers

The Nuggets shot 15-of-42 from three-point range, just 35.7% from behind the arc but still an encouraging number. Through the first two games, Denver attempted 28 and 29 three-pointers respectively. There were only seven other instances out of 87 games so far this preseason in which a team attempted fewer than 30 three-pointers.

Volume is important in keeping up with the modern NBA, and the Nuggets generated great shots last night. Cam Johnson shot just 2-of-7 from three but was open on several. Jamal Murray missed some open ones. Tim Hardaway Jr. has yet to find his range. Nikola Jokic is working out the kinks.

But the fact that Denver can generate good looks is encouraging. Christian Braun has been fantastic from behind the arc so far, and Aaron Gordon hit a couple too. Denver needs their entire team to be dangerous from behind the arc to remove pressure from the paint defense. If they can do so, things will go well offensively all regular season and into the playoffs.

Mentality

More than just about anything, I was impressed by Denver’s approach in this game. It was no nonsense, a focus that Denver never showed last preseason. Jokic and Murray set a great example in that regard, getting involved defensively, running the floor, being vocal, and simply running the offense to generate a great shot as often as they could.

Denver’s mentality last year was lost at times, often focused too often on the problems rather than creating the solutions necessary to thrive. At this stage, they’re in a good place, and they have far more solutions at their disposal this season due to better personnel. The optionality off the bench and with various different units offers a far more balanced approach. Last season, it was the starters plus Russell Westbrook…or it was a loss.

This year (preseason overreactions notwithstanding) it seems like the Nuggets can approach games without so much pressure or desperation.

Whether that’s true or not remains to be seen. The Nuggets are still in the very early stages of a long, long journey.


Denver has two more preseason games to go, a home matchup on Tuesday night against the Chicago Bulls, followed by the road finale against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday night.

Expect the Nuggets to rest some starters in those games. There will be lineups that they try to see before games matter for real, but for all intents and purposes, Sunday seemed like Denver’s dress rehearsal matchup. I don’t expect extensive starter and rotation minutes for the rest of the preseason, certainly not in the Friday finale.