The Denver Nuggets beat the New Orleans Pelicans by a score of 125-118 on Wednesday, but it didn’t come without a surprising pregame coaching adjustment from Nuggets head coach David Adelman. 

With the usual starter, Aaron Gordon, out for the game with a hamstring injury, Adelman elected to start 24-year-old forward Zeke Nnaji, who had started just 11 career games prior and was playing an average of just over three minutes per game leading into his appearance on Wednesday.

Nnaji registered two points and four rebounds and missed all three field goal attempts in 24 minutes of action, but Adelman revealed after the game that Nnaji was actually put into the lineup due to his past success guarding Pelicans star Zion Williamson. 

“(Zeke) has had success in the past as far as, at least physically, guarding Zion,” Adelmen said. “He hasn't stopped him. No one really does one-on-one. He's had experience doing it, and I trusted that. You know, I've been here. I've seen him do it. I remember the past. So we trust Zeke to do it.

“On nights like this, it was the right matchup. I made that point before. It's not going to be most popular player that's going to start. It's going to be who makes sense to win the game.”

While Nnaji didn’t provide anything in terms of a scoring presence, Adelman further explained his decision to start Nnaji and indicated that he saw what he wanted from the sixth-year reserve. 

“You know, we have Cam and Jamal and Nikola out there. You get a great night from Peyton offensively. That particular player was very important because it had to be somebody who made sense with Zion. And Zion's a tough matchup, so Zeke made sense to me.”

With Gordon typically being the Nuggets’ self-prescribed Zion stopper, Adelman had to make due with what he had on the bench with the next best option in Nnaji. The Nuggets gave up a handful of points in the paint early, but Adelman mostly attributed that to turnovers and miscommunication on the offensive end. 

“I think a lot of it was turnovers,” Adelman said. “And also some of the game plan stuff. I didn't think we were clean enough with early. As the game went on, we did a much better job of shrinking behind the initial defender. (Zion) has such a load inside when he gets in the paint. But, you know, holding him to 14 points on 13 shots is a good number.”