Can the Nuggets balance building chemistry with maintaining a healthy roster?

The Nuggets didn’t want to overwork Jamal Murray in his seeding round debut against the Utah Jazz, the first game action for Denver’s point guard since the team’s last of three scrimmages back on July 27.

What was the plan for Murray heading into Saturday’s matinee? A modest 22 minutes. Instead, Murray ended up logging just under 40 minutes in Denver’s 134-132 double-OT win.

“I totally blew through those minutes,” Malone admitted after the win.

Murray’s extended debut was a glimpse into the predicament that the Nuggets find themselves up against as Denver breached the midway point of its eight seeding games over the weekend. How on earth do the already undermanned Nuggets balance honing their on-court chemistry before the playoffs and staying healthy?

Oh yeah. And the playoffs begin in seven days.

“I think no one has been dealt a tougher hand than we have in terms of the number of people that came with us to the bubble originally on July 7,” Malone said this week. “… And then as we did get bodies down here, we were dealing with injuries.”

At least among the contending teams, Malone’s right. The Nuggets have been at Disney World for just over one month, but due to injuries and late arrivals still have not been able to play their regular starting five: Murray, Harris, Barton, Millsap, Jokić — the most-played five-man lineup in the league this season.

So with Murray finally in uniform Saturday, the Nuggets took full advantage of their first chance to prep for a higher-intensity playoff environment and build cohesion with their starting point guard even though Murray didn’t look 100%. During stoppages in play, the broadcast showed Murray grabbing at him left hamstring, and on the bench, during timeouts, Murray was seen trying to stretch out his leg.

Postgame, Murray cited fatigue and the fact that Saturday was his first game action in around two weeks for his 10-25 shooting from the field and 2-8 from beyond the arc. Murray also missed two free-throws late in the second overtime but came up big earlier in the clutch. He sunk a go-ahead fadeaway with under a minute to go in regulation and a transition layup to put the Nuggets up by four moments later. Murray finished with 23 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists.

Denver got a triple dose of valuable late-game experience against Utah. It’s something the Nuggets need to work on too after blowing a six-point lead with 20 seconds left in regulation and another six-point lead with three minutes left in the first OT. However, questionable officiating certainly helped push the game into extra time. The league’s L2M Report released Sunday said that a foul shouldn’t have been whistled on Murray for going for a loose ball, which he recovered, with 10 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter and the Nuggets leading by four. If that foul doesn’t get called, Denver wins the game in regulation.

Michael Porter Jr. gained prized game reps in the late-game pressure cooker versus the Jazz as well. Porter struggled in the first half but came alive in the third quarter to finish with 23 points and 11 rebounds, his fourth consecutive 20-plus-point, 10-plus-rebound game. Porter was on the floor for 20 of the 22 possible fourth-quarter and overtime minutes Saturday.

Saturday also marked the first minutes that the Nuggets’ new Big 3 played together since Denver’s season resumed on Aug. 1. The immediate results were promising. The Jazz outscored the Nuggets by six in the six first-half minutes that the trio was on the court, but across the second half and overtime Denver was a plus-27 in the 20 minutes that Murray, Porter, and Jokic played together.

Their chemistry is building.

“Honestly just being on the same page,” Murray said in regards to what he wants to get out of the remaining seeding games. “Whether it’s knowing plays, Mike hasn’t been out there that much with that many minutes…Knowing plays, getting that chemistry back, getting that offense going, and most of all, defensively.”

Here’s a compelling storyline to keep an eye on during Denver’s Disney stay: it sounds like the 23-year-old Murray is taking the 22-year-old Porter under his wing. Murray has been imploring the rookie to use his voice more on the defensive end of the floor, and his schooling, along with the Porter’s increased comfort in Denver’s defensive scheme, seems to be paying off. Porter looks like a much more capable defender now than he did in February or March, although as a team, the Nuggets have the worst 3-point defense and second-worst defense in the bubble, as Murray mentioned.

“I’m just trying to be more vocal, trying to tell (Porter), every time down the court be vocal, tell me what it is even if you’re wrong. Just give me something, so I don’t get hit by a screen, and we can all try to be on the same page.”

So, where do the Nuggets go from here?

Harris and Barton won’t play Monday against the Lakers. As for Murray, he looked pretty beat up by the time Denver walked off the floor against Utah but wasn’t on the injury report that the Nuggets released Sunday.

In between the lines, the Nuggets should feel confident that the Murray Jokic duo, which again was one of the upper-echelon pick-and-roll pairings in the league this season, will click quickly. They looked the part against Utah. Three of Jokic’s seven assists Saturday went to Murray, and six of Murray’s eight helpers against the Jazz went to Jokic. There’s no concern about the synergy between the pick-and-roll partners and Denver’s go-to late-game sets, even though Murray sat out of the first half of the Nuggets’ seeding games.

“We are used to it, me and Jamal. It’s just kind of normal to us,” Jokic said. “We always finish the game like that.”

But it could take more game reps to build that cohesion between Murray and Porter, simply because those two haven’t played a ton of minutes together in the bubble didn’t spend long stretches on the floor together pre-hiatus. Murray and Porter have played 199 total minutes together this season, just 28 more minutes than Porter has logged alongside PJ Dozier, who was in the G League for much of the year. Working in Barton and Harris come playoff time, especially if they don’t get many minutes during the seeding games, could be difficult as well.

The clock is ticking. The Nuggets have three seeding games remaining before their first-round series against either the Rockets, Jazz, Thunder, or Mavs. Denver needs to hone its chemistry but also can’t afford any more injuries. Maintaining that balance won’t be an easy task.

“We’re going to be smart,” Malone said. “… Yes, we want to feel good going into the playoffs and win some of these games, but I also want to make sure we’re going in healthy, and no one’s going in dragging and tired and beat up.”