After a blowout loss in their first summer league game on Sunday night, the Denver Nuggets take the floor again tonight for a matchup against the Boston Celtics. Boston won their first game the other night by 2-points over the Atlanta Hawks, while the Nuggets suffered a 20-point loss to the Miami Heat.
The Celtics have a pretty nice core on their summer league squad featuring Carsen Edwards, Payton Pritchard, Romeo Langford, and Aaron Nesmith. All four had really strong first games and should give the Nuggets everything they can handle tonight.
We are still unsure which Nuggets players will be available tonight, but according to his Instagram story it looks as if Bones Hyland is still out for the Nuggets.
Markus Howard and Zeke Nnaji were the other notable Nuggets to miss the first game due to health and safety protocols, so it’s unclear whether they’ll be able to suit up tonight.
If Howard, Nnaji, and Hyland are all out again the focus will once again turn to Bol Bol, who had a nice finish to his first summer league game on Sunday. Caleb Agada is another player to keep an eye on as he will look to build on his performance from the Nuggets first summer league game.
The Basics
Who: Denver Nuggets vs Boston Celtics
Where: Las Vegas Summer League, Nevada
When: Tuesday, 5:00pm MT
How to Watch: ESPNU, ESPN App
Biggest questions
Who’s actually playing?
We asked this same question last game and it’s fair to ask it once again for tonight. With all the uncertainly surrounding who the Nuggets actually have available it’s a mystery until the ball is tipped. Last game the Nuggets had 10 players at their disposal because they made a couple last second additions to the roster.
Here are the 10 players that suited up on Sunday:
Caleb Agada, Bol Bol, Daniel Hamilton, Giorgi Bezhanishvili, Arnas Velicka, Zylan Cheatham, Matur Makar, Steffon Mitchell, Davon Reed, and Josh Gray
I’d expect a similar roster for tonight’s game until we hear anything different regarding certain players availability.
Can Bol Bol find some consistency?
Bol is the star of the Nuggets summer league squad and following an up and down first game it will be key for him to find some sort of rhythm tonight. In 29 minutes, Bol scored 21 points on 5-of-14 shooting from the field and committed six turnovers.
Bol looked dominant at times, especially in the fourth quarter and his free-throw numbers were evidence of that as he got to the line 14 times converting 11 of them.
There is no doubt the Nuggets are going to play through Bol, especially if they have the same roster. It’s time for Bol to take over.
Who steps up?
Other than Bol at times, the Nuggets only real stand out from the first game was Agada, who scored 21 points on 8-of-22 shooting from the field, 4-of-10 from three to go along with eight rebounds and five assists.
Agada feels like a candidate to fill one of the Nuggets vacant two-way spots and his usage in the first game could me an example why. Not only did Agada get a ton of shots up, but he also played 29 minutes which tied Bol for the second most on the Nuggets. Reed ended up playing the most minutes for Denver in game one with 32.
Agada will be the guy I’m watching tonight. If he continues to play well and shoot a little more consistent he may be able to stick around in a Nuggets jersey long-term.
