With 10 games left and 15 healthy bodies, David Adelman changed direction.

Denver’s coach went away from Jonas Valanciunas and without a true backup center for a second consecutive game. Adelman has decided to roll with Jamal Murray, Bruce Brown, Tim Hardaway Jr., Peyton Watson and Spencer Jones while Nikola Jokic and most of the other starters rest. Without Valanciunas on the court, the Nuggets were able to switch every screen.

“It just gives us another dimension for this team to deploy whenever we want,” Jones said. “It definitely allows us to switch on ball, which makes a lot of our defenders a lot more aggressive. Obviously, we have a lot of good defenders out there, so we’re able to pick pockets, get steals, get some easy runouts and apply more pressure.”

The group struggled to contain Robert Williams III, Portland’s reserve center in the first stint. Denver’s new bench unit lost the first stint by a point.

“When you play that way, Robert Williams, sometimes, is going to look really good against a small-ball lineup, but you have to stick with it and see if it’s effective,” Adelman said. “It was in the second half. I thought that kind of flipped the game.”

Denver led by 14 when the group took the court together to start the fourth. The margin remained the same when Jokic came back in to close out the game. Jones came up with a steal and a block that led to transition layups for Murray and Brown. Jones finished another defensive stop with an alley-oop dunk that put Denver up 17.

“The second unit to start the fourth quarter was awesome,” Adelman said. “They got into people. They caused some havoc. That’s what they have to do.”

Valanciunas was the only player who didn’t play for the Nuggets. Tyus Jones, Jalen Pickett, Julian Strawther, DaRon Holmes II and Zeke Nnaji closed out the final couple of minutes.

“All these guys have had impacts this season. That’s going to be the challenge for this team, being unselfish. If it’s not your night, stay locked in and be ready,” Adelman said.

“Right now, that second unit, it’s been very effective.”

Watson and Brown scored 14 and 13 points, respectively.

“Be gritty and grind it out,” Watson said of the new group’s desired identity. “A lot of games aren’t going to be pretty, especially coming down into the playoffs. I think us as a unit, we’ve got to come in and kind of enforce some physicality and just some grit.”

Moving forward, Adelman said his new second unit needs to do a better job of finding the roll man when teams blitz Murray to force the ball away from the unit’s more dangerous offensive players. There weren’t many complaints beyond that.

“There’s been enough positives in the last couple of games where I’ve seen guys play make,” Adelman said.

“Offensively, I think … certain nights it will look tough out there, but defensively, I think it can really shut people down. … If we’re a plus with that group, which (we) were in the second half … we know what’s coming back in. That starting five offensively and defensively, honestly, the efficiency has been very impressive this season.”