“I’m just trying to figure out the flow of my minutes, you know?” Gordon said Friday. “It’s a longer halftime for me right now.”

The short-handed Nuggets’ silver linings playbook: hang around, drill some timely 3-pointers and control the glass — even without a true center in the paint.

“We just want to get back whole,” Braun said last Sunday. “We want to win as many games as possible until we get back whole, but once we get back whole, we know what we are, and I think everybody else knows what we are.”

He has scored 20-plus points in five straight games, while shooting 41.4 % on 3s, compared to 39 % in the first 30 games.

Nuggets team sources have been pleasantly surprised by Nikola Jokic’s progress recovering from a knee injury.

Without Zeke Nnaji, the Nuggets might have finished their marathon road trip two games worse.