NEW ORLEANS — The upper deck of Smoothie King Center was almost as sparse as the Denver Nuggets’ and New Orleans Pelicans’ active rosters for their first NBA Cup game.

New Orleans was missing six players to injuries, including star forward Zion Williamson. Denver was fending for the first time this season without Nikola Jokic, who didn’t travel with the team because of personal reasons, not to mention Aaron Gordon dealing with a calf strain and coach Michael Malone playing hooky.

Jamal Murray’s 16 points, eight assists, six rebounds and two steals weren’t enough to overcome those absences in a 101-94 loss to the Pelicans on Friday night.

“We have a great team here,” said Murray, who missed 10 of his 16 shot attempts. “We should have won that game.”

New Orleans snapped a six-game losing streak by ending Denver’s five-game winning streak. Brandon Ingram went for 29 points, nine rebounds and seven assists to give the Nuggets (7-4) a group-stage loss in the second annual in-season tournament. Porter led them with 24 points but only four after halftime. Christian Braun added 15 points and five steals. Denver’s next NBA Cup game is Tuesday at Memphis.

Jokic was ruled out Friday around noon after being listed as questionable on Thursday.

“He’s good,” acting head coach David Adelman assured reporters. “It’s personal reasons for him. I’ll leave it at that.”

The Nuggets were unsure when Jokic would re-join the team as of Friday evening before opening tip.

“Hopefully soon,” Adelman said. “Things at home for somebody, that’s their business, and when he feels like he’s ready to come back, he’ll come back.”

As for Malone? He stayed back in Denver for his daughter Bridget’s high school volleyball game in the state tournament, which ends Saturday. She’s a senior at Mountain Vista, with plans to continue her career in college at North Carolina.

“From being a coach’s son and growing up around this, and the things you miss as a dad, really cool that he’s there,” Adelman said. “That’s something you don’t want to miss. It’s one game (for the Nuggets). Whatever. That’s really important to her. It’s really important to their family. So I’m glad he’s there.”

Adelman recognized the most difficult aspect of filling Malone’s shoes was that “Nikola’s not here” and endeavored to replace the three-time MVP “with a lot of different lineups.” Dario Saric, who was out of the rotation entirely during Denver’s undefeated five-game homestand, returned as a starter. Zeke Nnaji remained in the backup center role. And suddenly, Saric transformed into Jokic, in one sense, anyway: that his exit from the game immediately resulted in disaster. Denver had started with a 16-9 lead. New Orleans answered with an 11-2 run that started when Saric picked up his second foul and went to the bench.

“We have a lot of guys who can fill (Jokic’s) role, but they’re all very different kinds of players,” Adelman said pregame. “We can downsize with Peyton at the five. Dario can play. He’s more of a play-maker. DeAndre’s more of a roller. We know what Zeke can do defensively.”

Nnaji was limited to fewer than six minutes, all in the first quarter, because Denver was a minus-15 with him on the floor. For a stretch of the second frame, Adelman instead tried out one of the ultra-small lineups that he had referenced and that Malone had introduced last week, with Watson at center.

The 6-7 wing showed off some good scoring chops, joining Michael Porter Jr. as the only Nuggets in double figures at halftime. But if the Nuggets want to use him at the five in future games without Jokic, it’ll only exacerbate one of the characteristics they miss most about their MVP: rebounding.

The Pelicans killed Denver on the glass, regardless of what lineups Adelman tried. The rebounding advantage was 58-45. Offensive rebounds were worse: 17-5.

“The glass lost us the game,” Adelman said. “There’s no question about it.”

Denver introduced Vlatko Cancar in the second half, hours after he was cleared to play. He has been dealing with a sprained ankle this season, unrelated to the torn left ACL that sidelined him all of last year. The contribution from him was small but encouraging: a baby hook with the left hand, a good help read to block a shot before the third-quarter buzzer, a pair of boards.

Despite Murray’s insufficient scoring game on a night the Nuggets probably needed more from their second option, Adelman was happy with how Murray adapted to New Orleans’ gameplan, blitzing him on ball screens all night.

“I would love to know how many of the open 3s were off of hockey assists from him that ended up not being an assist (for anyone) because we didn’t knock down the shot,” Adelman said. “So him making the pass to the middle of the floor and guys finding the right guy for the right shot, that’s his job. It’s not Nikola in that pocket. It’s different. But I thought the guys tried to maintain the ball movement, and Jamal did his job. That’s what he’s supposed to do.”

©2024 MediaNews Group, Inc. Visit at denverpost.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.