Lots of players rest and lots of playoff seeds are locked up on a 15-game Friday in the NBA
The Oklahoma City-Denver game could have starred the NBA's two most recent MVPs: the reigning one in Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and a three-time winner in Nuggets forward Nikola Jokic. Except they both sat out. They weren't alone.
All the other regular starters for the Thunder and Nuggets were ruled out, too. And around the league, no fewer than 168 players — including 14 members of the Memphis Grizzlies — were held out on Friday night because of injuries or illnesses. Every team in the league was playing game 81 — the next-to-last game — of their seasons on Friday night.
They're all off Saturday, and then all teams play again Sunday to close the regular season. Some teams had something to play for Friday. Some did not.
Sometimes, that didn't seem to matter. “If we didn’t clinch (the No. 1 overall seed) coming into tonight, everybody would be playing,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault told reporters before the game.
“We’ve earned the right through 80 games to manage their bodies and stuff like that. ” Oklahoma City already had the No. 1 seed for the entirety of the postseason wrapped up, so rest and health appear to be the priority for the Thunder.