Yes, there are dress rehearsal games in the NBA preseason.
They arrive with a lot less fanfare than their NFL preseason counterparts, and are harder to pinpoint, but they are no less important. Rosters and rotations largely determined, it’s the exhibition game that teams specifically play to win.
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“You look at that OKC game against us (Sunday),” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “They played that game like a real game.”
The Nuggets have one of those games Thursday at the Utah Jazz.
The question is: Will the Nuggets have enough healthy bodies to get a good look at what they’ll become at the start of the regular season next week?
The early returns say no.
“For us, we’re so banged up we can’t even have a dress rehearsal,” Malone said. “That’s a tough thing.”
By and large the injuries aren’t significant more so than just a lot of wear and tear from a month of training camp. Still, Malone and the Nuggets’ coaching staff are being forced to cull together the information they’ve already gained over the course of October about what lineups work, which combinations of players play well together, etc., and see it work in practice rather than live action.
“Which is somewhat concerning before the season even starts,” Malone said. “But we’ll play whatever active bodies we have (at Utah) and try to make the best of it.”
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The positive is the team has liked the work it has been able to get done in camp.
“It’s been very good,” Nuggets forward Danilo Gallinari said. “It’s been great, to be honest, since the beginning. The atmosphere is great, and doing good in the preseason like we’ve been doing is great. It’s great for this team and it’s great to get into the season like that.”
Jameer Nelson ticked down the list of training camp surprises.
“You’ve got a lot of guys who are playing well,” Nelson said. “You look at a guy like Gary Harris, Will Barton, Joffrey Lauvergne, Kenneth (Faried) has played well. A bunch of guys have played well. Emmanuel (Mudiay) has learned from his mistakes and gotten better from game-to-game.”
The Nuggets are 4-2 in the preseason heading into the final contest, a record they completely dismiss. But what Malone isn’t dismissing are the strides his team has made on the defensive end of the court.
“I love it,” Malone said. “Here we are, a week away from our season opener in Houston and I think to a man, I commend all of our players for how hard they work, their commitment. We’ve done a lot of good things, and obviously there’s room to grow, but for us being in the first year, first training camp, new staff, new terminology, new everything, I’m really pleased where we are and how hard our players are working.”
Christopher Dempsey: cdempsey@denverpost.com or @dempseypost
