The Denver Nuggets are poised to get a boost on Sunday when they host the Portland Trail Blazers, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania, who reported Saturday that Peyton Watson is expected to return after missing more than six weeks with a hamstring strain.

Watson’s breakout season was interrupted by injury in early February, and that setback sidelined the fourth-year wing the past 19 games.

Before he went down with a Grade 2 left hamstring strain late in a double-overtime road loss to the New York Knicks on Feb. 4, he was playing the best basketball of his young career. 

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From Dec. 31 to Feb. 4, Watson averaged 21.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.5 blocks and 1.1 steals per game while shooting 48.5% from the field during that span, including 43.9% from 3-point land.

That surge began on New Year’s Eve, coinciding with the start of Nikola Jokić’s 16-game absence from an injury that saw him suffer a bone bruise while hyperextending his left knee on Dec. 29.

The three-time NBA MVP returned on Jan. 30. In the four games with Jokić back on the court, Watson kept his foot on the gas. He put up 21, 29 and then 17 points before mustering just 10 in his injury-shortened appearance versus the Knicks.

Key return for Nuggets’ stretch run

Watson’s return is reportedly slated to arrive with just 11 games remaining in the Nuggets’ regular season. Denver is currently 43-28 and fifth in the Western Conference standings, although it’s only 2.5 games behind the third-place Los Angeles Lakers. That said, the Lakers own the tiebreaker over the Nuggets.

Maybe more importantly, Denver is getting healthy at the right time. The key will be maintaining that status the rest of the way.

As for Watson, the 23-year-old UCLA product will try to resume his career season. Prior to the 2025-26 campaign, he hadn’t averaged more than 8.1 points per game or started more than 18 games in a season.

He’s gotten the starting nod 39 times this season and is posting 14.9 points per game.  

Trae Young has missed the past two games, and the Washington Wizards announced Saturday that the four-time All-Star point guard is recovering from quad and back injuries that won’t require surgery but are being “treated conservatively.”

Young re-injured his right quad, sustaining a contusion during the third quarter of Washington’s loss to the Golden State Warriors on Monday, according to the Wizards, who also noted in their news release that related imaging revealed lower-back irritation that Young has been dealing with.

“Further updates will be provided as appropriate,” the release reads.

Young, 27, has played in just 15 games this season, including only five with the Wizards, who acquired him in a January trade that sent CJ McCollum and Corey Kispert to the Atlanta Hawks.

The Wizards dropped all five of those games Young played. His debut in Washington didn’t put a stop to a losing streak that has now stretched to 14 games. The Wizards also lost 14 consecutive games this fall when they trudged to a 1-15 start.

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Washington is two games away from tying a franchise-record 16-game skid. The Wizards most recently suffered that kind of slide in March 2024.

At 16-53, Washington currently has the second-worst record in the NBA. Only the Indiana Pacers have a worse record than the Wizards this season.

Will Anthony Davis return this season?

Washington hasn’t yet reaped the benefits of dealing for a pair of league icons. The other, 10-time All-Star big man Anthony Davis, hasn’t appeared in a game for the Wizards since they traded for him as part of an eight-player deal ahead of the deadline last month.

Davis last played on Jan. 8, when he injured his left hand while defending Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen on a baseline drive. He was with the Dallas Mavericks at the time of that setback.

The 33-year-old has been sidelined with ligament damage in that hand, but the Wizards stated earlier this month that he had been cleared to begin limited individual on-court basketball activities.

Washington has just 13 games remaining in its season. 

As for Young, his 15 games played are by far the fewest he’s logged in a single season of his eight-year NBA career. Before the 2025-26 campaign, he had appeared in at least 54 games every season.

When the Wizards struck the deal to bring him over from Atlanta, he was sidelined with another right quad contusion. And before that, he sat out 23 games with an MCL sprain in his right knee.

While this season hasn’t gone according to plan for Young, and his Wizards era is off to a rocky start, he’s reportedly expected to sign a long-term extension with the franchise.