Nuggets host Hawks on Saturday night

Denver returns home to Ball Arena to host the Atlanta Hawks.

Here’s the injury report for Saturday’s game.

Denver:
Vlatko Čančar — OUT (Left Knee Surgery)
Aaron Gordon — PROBABLE (Right Foot Strain)
Nikola Jokić — PROBABLE (Left Hip Inflammation)
Jamal Murray — QUESTIONABLE (Right Knee Inflammation)

Atlanta:
Saddiq Bey — OUT (Left Knee Torn ACL)
AJ Griffin — OUT (Right Ankle Sprain)
Mouhamed Gueye — QUESTIONABLE (Right UCL Sprain)
Onyeka Okongwu — OUT (Left Big Toe Sprain)
Trae Young — OUT (Left Fifth Finger Torn Ligament)

Denver enters Saturday’s contest with a lot on the line. Currently, they’ve tied with the Minnesota Timberwolves for the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference after Minnesota lost, 97-87, to the Phoenix Suns on Friday. Behind Denver and Minnesota is the third-place Oklahoma City Thunder by a full game. Denver plays four below-.500 teams in their final five games, including the Hawks, so their schedule is favorable.

Atlanta sits at 36-41 on the season and is in 10th place in the Eastern Conference fighting for their Play-In Tournament lives. The Hawks are dealing with a ton of injuries. All-Star point guard, Trae Young, has missed 21 consecutive games with finger surgery. Onyeka Okongwu and Saddiq Bey, two key pieces in Atlanta’s rotation, are also ruled out for Saturday’s content. Bey will not play for the rest of the year after tearing his ACL in March.

Dejounte Murray will gladly pick up the slack in his teammates’ absence for Atlanta. Murray is just five games removed from dropping a career-high 44 points. He’s been the second-best high-volume isolation player in the league this season and is averaging 1.15 points per one-on-one possession. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope will more than likely get the Murray assignment, who’s holding opponents to 2.7 percentage points worse than their normal shooting averages.

The transition game could be a big battleground on Saturday. Atlanta’s transition defense has ranked dead last out of all 30 teams since the All-Star break, whereas Denver’s averaged the 7th-most fastbreak points per game since February’s break.

Denver is 53-24 on the season. They’re 31-8 at Ball Arena, the second-best home record in the NBA.

TUNE-IN: Saturday 7:00 p.m. MT, Altitude TV, and Altitude Sports Radio 92.5 FM