At the end of practice on Wednesday, Jamal Murray wore sweatpants and a long-sleeved 2023 NBA Champions T-shirt and worked on his three-pointer in a corner of the gym. Six days after he aggravated his hamstring in Cleveland, the injury was still long enough to limit him. Not entirely, however.

“He was able to complete part of practice today, it was great to have him there,” said Nuggets coach Michael Malone. “He did a good job yesterday in terms of treatment and player development. And then we’ll see how he feels about his work today. I would say he’s still listed as questionable for Friday night.”

The Nuggets (12-10) host the Clippers on Friday in a make-up game after both teams, who have already met twice this season, were eliminated early from the NBA Cup. Meanwhile, for the second time in as many months, Denver has an unusual four-day gap between games. The team returned from a three-game road trip late Sunday night and had a “blackout day” on Monday, meaning players and staff had to stay home and away from the arena. On Tuesday, the players arrived for individual treatment and PD support.

“It’s so strange. Two games in seven days this week. Next week two out of seven. And then the Grinch comes out; “Christmas week we play five out of seven,” Malone said. “Once you know that, you have to act wisely. … Today we did it.”

Murray (right hamstring inflammation) has missed the last two games – both ends of a back-to-back game that split Denver at Washington and Atlanta last weekend.

After a 141-111 win over the Hawks on Sunday, Malone expected Murray’s injury could take longer to heal, unlike the ankle injury that sidelined backup center Dario Saric.

“Dario twisted his ankle at practice at Georgetown the other day,” Malone said at the time. “I wouldn’t say serious. …We have such a long break now between our next game that I fully expect Dario to be back, and I think there’s a good chance Jamal will be back too. But we’ll have to wait and see. Jamals, we need to be a little more careful with his.”

Unsurprisingly, the Nuggets’ focus in their first full practice of the week was defense. They rank 16th in the league in points allowed per 100 possessions, while their offense ranks seventh.

Defensive rebounding in particular became a big problem again away from home. Denver allowed a total of 34 consecutive offensive boards. Opponents average 15.5 second chance points per game. Only the Wizards and Thunder allow more.

“There are three areas we need to continue to focus on (defensively): transition, paint and rebounding. Those three areas are really hurting us,” Malone said. “We are bottom five in all of these categories. And my message was this: We’re giving up 116.8 points per game. If we give up one less basket in transition, one less blow-by and not catching the penalty box in the half court, and give up one less offensive rebound, we can go down to 110.8. It’s right there. It hangs in the air. We just have to do it better.”

Braun on Jokic’s media comments

Nikola Jokic’s tongue-in-cheek comment over the weekend that salary cuts could motivate the Nuggets caused a stir in the national media, but according to Christian Braun, what he says publicly isn’t as important to the team as what he says privately. Even if what Jokic said was brutally honest.

“I think people saw it. … I don’t know if we’re listening to it or taking note of it,” Braun said. “We have conversations within our team where Nikola speaks up, and we have conversations within our team where DeAndre (Jordan), Russ (Westbrook) and the coach, whoever it is, speak up.” We have a lot of people speaking out. And we need more of that. And there are also places where we can improve. But we don’t watch too much media stuff. We’re trying to listen more to what we’re talking about internally and in our meetings. But I think the comment is obviously correct. We are on the square; we have to produce. It doesn’t matter what it is. There are no excuses. We have to win games.

“We have the best player in the world, a top 10 player of all time, on our team. And he’s playing great and he’s in every single game and playing really well. We have to help him.”