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Containing the Denver Nuggets' 3-time MVP Nikola Jokić is an admittedly tall task for the other 29 teams in the association.
Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors are no stranger to the destruction that the Serbian superstar can leave in his wake with relative ease, and a new decision made by the team's coaching staff could lead to another monster performance from the 2023 Finals MVP when the two squads clash on Thursday night.
"Warriors planning to bring Al Horford off the bench again tonight, even against Nikola Jokić and the Nuggets," The San Francisco Standard's Danny Emerman shared via X/Twitter on Thursday afternoon.
"He played 20 minutes in the opener, which is about where GSW want to keep him at."
Despite possibly being the best one-on-one matchup for Golden State against Denver's all-time great center, the Warriors will not start their 39-year-old NBA champion big man Al Horford.
It was already pre-determined by the Warriors' head coach Steve Kerr that the 19-year veteran would not suit up for back-to-back's throughout the 2025-26 campaign, but it appears that Kerr also wishes to keep him on a minutes restriction.
In Golden State's season-opening 119-109 victory against Luka Dončić, Austin Reaves and the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night, the 5-time All-Star contributed five points, five rebounds and one assist in 20 minutes of action, knocking down just two of his seven attempts from the field in the process.
Horford's age should certainly play a role with regard to the allocation of his minutes on a nightly basis, but an important early-season matchup against the league's most dominant center might warrant a few more short on-court stints.
The Warriors will rely heavily on 2017 Defensive Player of the Year Draymond Green to take on the matchup, but his 6-foot-6 frame may not serve him well against the bruising 6-foot-11, 284-pound Jokić for extended stretches.
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