ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — The Nuggets dropped their second preseason game to the Boston Celtics on Sunday, 130-104.
With Michael Malone resting more of his guys than he did in the first game Friday in Abu Dhabi, this rematch was more about evaluating where bench players are at as the 2024-25 season nears. The results were mixed. Here are three takeaways from the game and the atmosphere at Etihad Arena.
Malone turns red watching third unit
As general manager Calvin Booth said on the team’s media day, Denver might have nine players who could be in any rotation in the NBA this season. But with three of them resting Sunday — Aaron Gordon, Michael Porter Jr. and Russell Westbrook — the weaknesses of the rest of the roster were susceptible to being accentuated.
After Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray were done at halftime, it got ugly. The Celtics won the third quarter, 42-16, with turnovers and lackadaisical defense from Denver’s third unit causing Malone to call heated timeouts worthy of a playoff game. Vlatko Cancar doesn’t look his sharpest yet as he returns from a missed season, and Jalen Pickett struggled at both ends of the floor.
Hunter Tyson, by all accounts from teammates and coaches, was a surprising standout at training camp, capitalizing on his increased opportunities with Peyton Watson injured. But if he’s going to fit in the rotation, he has to provide what the Nuggets don’t have much of: shooting. He missed a pair of clean 3-point attempts during the first half while playing in an offense that (on the bright side) is more than capable of generating those looks for him.
Strawther’s offensive game
The main event at Summer League for the Nuggets this year, Julian Strawther continued to showcase that his multi-level scoring capability is far along for a second-year player who was drafted at the end of the first round. He’s doing more with his game than just spotting up, and when he played with the starters Jamal Murray deferred to him at one point seemingly in an effort to give Strawther the reps with the ball in his hand.
The Gonzaga alum finished the game with 17 points (second on the team Nikola Jokic’s 20) on 6-of-12 shooting. He got to the foul line for five attempts as well, a skill that would take Denver’s second unit far if it translates to the regular season.
The scene in Abu Dhabi
There were moments early in the game during live play when the squeaking of shoes on a seemingly mic’d up court was the loudest noise in Etihad Arena. It was Boston’s turn to oversee the in-game entertainment as the home team after Denver’s staff ran the show Friday. During several Nuggets possessions, the Celtics’ arena DJ queued up a “DE-FENSE” chant by playing two quarter-notes of bass over the arena speakers. Nobody answered with a chant.
About those entertainment staff: The league covers expenses for the teams traveling to Abu Dhabi, so the Nuggets aren’t footing a bigger bill just to bring the Skyline Drumline along (even if the drums themselves are a bit of a hassle).
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“We have about 3 million fans in the market, about 15 (million) in the region,” said NBA executive George Aivazoglou, who oversees fan engagement in Europe and the Middle East. “But still a lot of those fans are what we describe as curious or casual fans. So they’re attracted to the NBA entertainment product. And basketball is a big part of that, but it’s not just about basketball. … Having team entertainment staff, the dancers, the mascots … that helps build fandom.”
The two games in Abu Dhabi this weekend certainly backed up that assessment, often in amusing ways. Late in the first game, dueling chants of “Let’s go Nuggets!” and “Let’s go Celtics!” broke out, but the line was just repeated consecutively without the usual clapping between each refrain. One of the moments of audible wonderment from the crowd (also Friday) was in response to DeAndre Jordan leaping to snag a Boston 3-point attempt out of the air after the play had already been whistled dead — something that NBA centers often do just because. And during a trivia segment at a timeout Sunday, a fan incorrectly guessed Ray Allen when asked which Celtics legend wore No. 34 and was nicknamed “The Truth.”
The NBA hopes its presence in the region continues to cause an increase in basketball fandom, as league-issued surveys have found to be the case since it started bringing preseason games to Abu Dhabi. That both underscores the league’s impressive influence and the fact that the reason it puts stakes in the ground anywhere has little to do with already-devoted fanbases.
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