David Adelman Has Full Confidence in Nuggets Despite Injuries and Struggles

The Denver Nuggets have been through the wringer this season, and that is not a secret to anybody watching from the outside.

Between injuries piling up and lineups changing on a nightly basis, it has been anything but smooth sailing for a team with championship goals.

But after Thursday night's 120-113 win over the Los Angeles Lakers at Ball Arena, head coach David Adelman made one thing very clear about where his team stands mentally.

"I know my team's going to win close games... there's no lack of confidence... it's a crapshoot right now who's finishing games... proud of the guys tonight," Adelman said postgame.

"They did their job defensively, found ways to score offensively. We made free throws."

That last part about the free throws was not just talk, either, because the Nuggets went an outstanding 28-for-31 from the charity stripe compared to just 10-for-15 for the Lakers, which ended up being one of the biggest differences in the game.

Nikola Jokic led the way with another dominant triple-double, finishing with 28 points, 12 rebounds and 13 assists while shooting 10-for-15 from the field and a perfect 8-for-8 from the free throw line.

Jamal Murray matched him with 28 points of his own while dishing out seven assists and knocking down five three-pointers on nine attempts, looking like the same guy who dropped 45 on Utah just days earlier.

Denver jumped out to a 10-point lead after the first quarter and held a 64-54 cushion at halftime, and even though the Lakers trimmed the deficit to seven entering the fourth, Adelman's group never let it get out of hand.

For Jokic, who is averaging 28.7 points, 12.6 rebounds and 10.5 assists per game this season, it was another reminder of why he remains in the MVP conversation every single year.

Murray's season has been equally impressive, as the first-time All-Star is putting up 25.7 points and 7.3 assists per game on career-best shooting numbers from the field.

What makes the Nuggets' win even more noteworthy is who was not on the floor, because Denver was without four of their rotation forwards in Aaron Gordon, Peyton Watson, Cameron Johnson and Spencer Jones.

That is why Adelman called it a "crapshoot" when it comes to who finishes games right now, since the constant shuffling of lineups has forced him to get creative with his rotations from night to night.

Players like Julian Strawther, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Zeke Nnaji have had to step into bigger roles, and on Thursday they all chipped in to help fill the gaps left by the missing pieces.

Strawther put up 18 points off the bench while Hardaway added 14, and Denver's depth showed that even when things are not ideal, this team finds ways to compete.

The win moved the Nuggets to 39-24 on the season, putting them one game out of third place in the Western Conference and 1.5 games ahead of the 37-25 Lakers for the fifth spot.

The good news for Denver is that reinforcements should be on the way soon.

Gordon is targeting a return as early as Friday night's game against the New York Knicks after missing 17 straight games with a hamstring injury, and Watson has also been ramping up his activity in practice.

The Nuggets are 17-6 with Gordon on the floor this season and 22-18 without him, so getting him back would be a huge boost heading into the toughest stretch of their schedule.

For now, though, Adelman is not worried about what his team does not have, because he knows what the guys in the locker room are capable of even when the roster is thin.

And Thursday night's win over the Lakers was proof that even in the middle of all the chaos and injuries, the Nuggets still have the fight and the firepower to beat good teams when it counts.