Nuggets game day: Denver faces Washington for first time since "the bump"

If the Denver Nuggets are to defy the odds and snap a four-season playoff drought, they will need to navigate their final stretch of the regular season with few slip-ups. Ten games are all that remain. In that time, the Nuggets will face nine teams in position to make the playoffs and a 10th team, the Los Angeles Clippers, who are right on Denver’s heels in the Western Conference.

The Nuggets (39-33) are two games behind the seventh-seeded Timberwolves (41-31) and eighth-seeded Jazz (41-31). Passing either of them with such a hellish schedule won’t be easy. Nuggets coach Michael Malone is well aware.

“Ten games,” Malone said Tuesday after his team easily dispatched the Chicago Bulls. “Don’t wait. There’s nothing to wait for. The time is now. … It doesn’t get any easier, but we don’t want it easier. We want a challenge. And I think our guys are ready for the challenge.”

That challenge begins Friday against the Washington Wizards (5 p.m., NBA TV, Altitude). Denver faces Washington in its fourth stop of a seven-game road swing. The Nuggets dropped their first two games of the trip out east, falling to Memphis and Miami, before earning a win over an awful Bulls team on Tuesday.

The Wizards (40-31) have managed to hold their heads above water even though they’ve been without star point guard John Wall since late January. Wall underwent arthroscopic knee surgery and has missed the last 24 games. Washington is 15-9 in that stretch thanks largely to Wall’s backcourt partner Bradley Beal. The former No. 3 overall pick is averaging 21.7 points, 4.5 rebounds and 6.4 assists in Wall’s absence.

Beal, who struggled to stay healthy earlier in his career, hasn’t missed a game yet this season. That’s a source of pride for the 24-year-old.

“Just taking care of my body. Eating the right foods. Try to do all my recovery processes. Sit in my space boots, I call them,” Beal told The Washington Post earlier this week about staying healthy. “I hate ice, but ice baths … and sleeping more than anything and just sticking to it.”

Normally, Beal would match up against Gary Harris. But Harris is still on the mend from a right knee sprain, which happened when he came down awkwardly on a dunk in a March 15 game vs. the Pistons. Harris will miss his fourth consecutive but is expected to return at some point during the seven-game road trip.

Friday marks Denver and Washington’s second and final meeting of the year. The Wizards defeated the Nuggets 109-104 on Oct. 23. Things got heated in that game when Nikola Jokic bumped into Wizards coach Scott Brooks and was called for a technical foul with 32.2 seconds remaining.

Afterward, Nuggets coach Michael Malone said he believed Brooks did a little acting to get the call.

“It was embellished a little bit, I think,” Malone said.

Nuggets Projected Starters

Jamal Murray, Will Barton, Wilson Chandler, Paul Millsap, Nikola Jokic

Wizards Projected Starters

Tomas Satoransky, Bradley Beal, Otto Porter Jr., Markieff Morris, Marcin Gortat