There was a stretch this season when injuries felt like the Denver Nuggets’ constant shadow. Players dropped from the lineup one after another, with Nikola Jokić missing 16 games and even those stepping into starting roles—like Peyton Watson—sidelined by their own setbacks. Health issues plagued the roster, disrupting chemistry and momentum at critical moments.
Now, with Watson back in the fold, the Nuggets’ second unit has a fresh spark, and the entire roster is finally whole again. After starting the season strong, Denver’s top-ranked offense is once more firing on all cylinders. As the playoffs draw near, could health be the very gift this team desperately needed?
It certainly appears so. Aaron Gordon returned about 11 games ago, but the Nuggets initially looked disjointed—most notably in their first full starting lineup game together since November 12, when they suffered a tough home blowout against the Knicks. Over the past 10 games, however, they’ve led the league in scoring with a blistering average of 127.4 points per game—surpassing even the 125.1 they posted during a healthy stretch in November.
Head coach David Adelman has quickly capitalized on the newfound depth and flexibility. The return of key pieces has unlocked new rotation options, and one standout experiment is the small-ball unit. This group, which wasn’t fully available until Watson’s comeback, has thrived on both ends of the floor. Adelman has deployed it effectively at the start of the second and fourth quarters during non-Jokić minutes. Watson has led the charge offensively, dropping 14 points in his first game back and 21 in his second, helping fuel a perfect 4-0 record since this lineup began clicking.
The healthy Nuggets are showing real promise. As ESPN’s Tim MacMahon noted on the Brian Windhorst and the Hoop Collective podcast, Denver was healthy last year—and still pushed a strong Oklahoma City Thunder team to seven games. For weeks, health has been the giant “what if” hanging over the Nuggets. Now that “if” has arrived, and the early answers are encouraging.
They’re riding a four-game win streak—their first since mid-January—and posting elite offensive numbers. Over the last 10 games, Denver sits at 7-3, with two of those losses coming on buzzer-beaters (one against the Lakers featuring Luka Dončić, and another to the pesky Thunder). A couple of bounces could easily have made it 9-1, with the outlier being a scheduling-related clunker on the road in Memphis.
In many ways, health has delivered the ultimate plot twist for the Nuggets. What once crippled their lineup is now transforming into their greatest advantage heading into the postseason. It’s time to unwrap that gift fully and turn it into playoff success. The roster is finally complete, the offense is cooking, and new combinations are working. For a team with championship aspirations, this late-season surge could be exactly what propels them deep into the playoffs.