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, who used only six players in a blowout loss at Utah — 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.
The Nuggets entered Friday still having seeding to play for, and in Jokic's case, there's still award eligibility to obtain. He needs to play in one more game, which would have to be Sunday if he's going to get on the ballot for MVP, All-NBA and other awards.
“We're all aware of that,” Nuggets coach David Adelman told reporters before the game, then said postgame that “an adult conversation” would be had on Saturday about the best course of action.
Some players got to award eligibility with a few extra minutes to spare.
San Antonio's Victor Wembanyama, needing to play 20 minutes to reach the 65-game standard and be eligible for postseason awards, was taken out after hitting exactly that number of minutes — then went back into the game, evidently having persuaded the Spurs that he needed a bit more on-court work.
He finished with 40 points, 13 rebounds and five assists in 26 minutes.
“If I had 65 (games) before, I for sure wouldn't have played,” Wembanyama said.
Said Spurs coach Mitch Johnson: “We need as much on-the-job training, on-the-court experience together as we can. That's what we're trying to do without overdoing it.”
There was also a record shooting effort on Friday. Boston made 29 3-pointers, tying the record for 3s in a game. It was the fourth time in NBA history a team made 29, and the second time this week after Memphis did it on Monday in a loss to Cleveland.
“Hopefully, we didn't use them all up in one game,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said.
Play-in dress rehearsal for Warriors?
Not everybody was resting for the playoffs.
Golden State was building for the postseason — or, at least, what it hopes will be a playoff run. The Warriors are going to the play-in tournament and tuned up by getting Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Kristaps Porzingis in the starting lineup together for the first time this season.
“We’ll just take a look at that tonight,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said before Golden State played Sacramento. “We have a season full of data and film on some of the combinations. But some of decisions we have to make, there’s no data. It’s just kind of a hunch so we have give some of that a look tonight.”
Jazz and Grizzlies combine to use 13 players
Utah — a team that seems to have spent the season ensuring it would have a bottom-four record to guarantee a top-eight draft pick — used seven players in its 147-101 win over Memphis, and was the deeper team.
Memphis had only six players.
It wasn't the game of the year, to put it mildly.
“Congrats to the Jazz,” Memphis coach Tuomas Iisalo said. “They played a really good game. Shot the ball really well. We knew we had limited bodies going into this game. Guys gave everything they had, but you could see they were extremely fatigued.”
Jazz coach Will Hardy called the game a great way to end Utah's home schedule.
“Just a fun night,” Hardy said.
Playoff picture becomes clearer
Atlanta became the 11th team to grab one of the 12 guaranteed playoff spots, rolling past a Cleveland team that sat Donovan Mitchell.
“It feels great,” guard CJ McCollum said after the Hawks clinched either the No. 5 or No. 6 spot in the East. “The guys did a great job of rallying together.”
In other playoff-related news:
— Boston secured No. 2 in the East, behind No. 1 Detroit (which had previously clinched).
— New York locked up No. 3 in the East.
— Cleveland is certain to be No. 4 in the East after that loss to the Hawks.
— Atlanta knows it will be in the playoffs, either as the No. 5 or No. 6 seed.
— Charlotte will be in the play-in tournament after falling to Detroit.
— Orlando will be in no worse than the 7-vs.-8 play-in game in the East.
— Miami is locked into the 9-vs.-10 play-in game in the East.
— Portland beat the Los Angeles Clippers, giving the Trail Blazers the inside track to the No. 8 seed in the West. The Clippers would have wrapped up No. 8 with a victory, and now need help Sunday to avoid being No. 9. The difference? The teams in the 7-vs.-8 game get two chances to win one game and make the playoffs. The 9-vs.-10 teams have to win two elimination games to advance. “It's a very important win,” Blazers star Deni Avdija said.
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AP Sports Writer Josh Dubow contributed to this report.
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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba
