Nuggets list top 6 players as questionable after hellish trip out of Mexico

After a 112-102 win over the Indiana Pacers in Mexico, the Nuggets listed all five starters and DeMar DeRozan as questionable for Monday's game at Houston

BY JAKE SHAPIRO

Nov 8, 2026, 4:25 PM

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Watch: Is Bill Simmons right about Nikola Jokic's decline? | Shapiro and Piro | 29 mins

The Denver Nuggets won in Mexico City on Saturday night. Getting out of Mexico City proved much harder.

One day after a 112-102 win over the Indiana Pacers at Arena CDMX, the Nuggets listed all five starters and DeMar DeRozan as questionable for Monday’s game at Houston. The team had spent most of Saturday night stuck on a plane that never left the ground.

“One of the worst travel nights I can remember for the Nuggets,” Nuggets broadcaster Katy Winge posted on Twitter.

The Nuggets had planned to fly to Houston right after the game. According to a timeline Winge posted, the team left the arena at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, and the buses reached the airport at 9 p.m. That’s when the team learned there was a problem with the plane.

The part needed to fix it arrived at 1 a.m., and the players were already on board. Crews finished installing it at 2:20 a.m. while the team kept waiting. At 3:25 a.m., everyone got off the plane after learning the door was jammed and wouldn’t fully close. The buses headed back to the team’s hotels in the city at 5 a.m.

The Nuggets tried again Sunday. Buses left the hotel at 2:15 p.m. and reached the airport at 3:45 p.m., and the team boarded. The plane’s door closed at 4:36 p.m., and Winge posted that the Nuggets were officially in the air at 4:54 p.m.

That was more than 21 hours after they had left the arena.

Shortly before Winger dropped the details, the Nuggets released their injury report:

Christian Braun: left calf contusion and illness
Aaron Gordon: lower body injury management
Cameron Johnson: lower body injury management
Nikola Jokic: right elbow sprain
Jamal Murray: left shin/tibia contusion
DeRozan: low back spasms

All six are questionable. Julian Strawther remains out with a left knee sprain.

The big minutes from Saturday plus the higher-than-Denver altitude of Mexico City make the report a little easier to understand. Jokic played 35 minutes and had 19 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists. Murray played 34 minutes and kept making the big plays late, including a 29-foot step-back 3-pointer that stopped Indiana’s comeback after a 27-point lead had shrunk to single digits. Johnson led Denver with 18 points.

Jokic’s elbow is the listing to watch, it’s one of the few injuries that has been bugging him the last few years — with a bum wrist and knee injury last year. His shooting has been off and his play has been slightly diminished this season leading to a lot of talk about his prime.

If some or all of the six can’t play, the Nuggets will lean on the same group that came up big on Saturday. Denver played 11 players against the Pacers, and the bench scored 43 points.

So a sleepy Nuggets group that may have to dip into the bench the way they did in Philly and in Milwaukee last winter — may have to do that again, not because of injury but because international travel coupled with plane issues. And they’ll have to do it against the Rockets (7-3), who have lost two in a row, but will be rested and at home.

It seems the NBA may not be as ready as we all though for regular international travel — and the Nuggets will play the guinea pig on the short end of it on Monday.