The opener showed how much that depth matters. Denver led 48-44 at halftime in Oklahoma City, then lost the 3rd quarter 26-16 and never got back in it, losing 96-84. Nikola Jokic had 13 points. A Jokic game in the teens is rare, and nobody should expect another one against a Pelicans defense that ranked in the bottom 10 in each of the last 2 seasons.
New Orleans had the reverse problem in its opener. The Pelicans' offense was fine: they scored 120 against Indiana, beat a thin Pacers bench 35-18 in the 2nd quarter and led by 10 at the half. Then they gave up 37 in the 4th and lost 123-120 on Tyrese Haliburton's return night. That late defense is exactly what new coach Jamahl Mosley was hired in May to fix. He built good defensive teams in Orlando, but 1 bad quarter was enough to show how far this group has to go.
So the matchup comes down to which problem is easier to fix in a few days. Denver's issue was its own scoring going cold late, which a rested Jokic at home tends to solve. The Pelicans' issue was getting stopped late, and that gets harder on tired legs in thin air. If Johnson plays, the Nuggets' rotation looks close to normal. If he doesn't, Adelman has to stretch an already thin wing group against a Pelicans team that just proved it can punish a bench.
Tipoff is 7:00 PM MT. As of Friday, both teams are 0-1, and the Pelicans' record could change before they land in Denver. The main thing to watch is the 2nd half. Both teams led at halftime in their openers and both lost, so this will probably be decided by who has the legs and the bodies after the break.