After last night’s embarrassment I was tempted to throw a terse little preview out there further ripping on the Nuggets, but I realized I need to be more professional than that. The loss to the Bulls was disappointing, but there are still 28 games left and a place in the playoffs to be had.
Tonight Denver heads to Milwaukee. The Bucks are 14-11 at home, but they had lost four in a row at the Bradley Center before beating Detroit on Wednesday. Of course Detroit exacted a little revenge last night dropping the Bucks by 27.
Milwaukee has recently moved Charlie Villanueva into the starting lineup in place of Yi Jianlian. Villanueva is a perimeter big man that could give the Nuggets a lot of trouble. Michael Redd will fill the role of the shooter to give the Nuggets problems in the same vein as Ray Allen and Ben Gordon. Andrew Bogut is a center that could give Camby problems too. After a very good January Bogut has had six sub par games. Look for him to bounce back tonight. To make things worse, Desmond Mason has given the Nuggets difficulties in the past as well.
After a four game road winning streak the Nuggets have lost two straight. As always the key to the Nuggets performance tonight is more a matter of what is going on between their ears than anything physical. The Nuggets absolutely cannot drop this game too. If they put forth another horrible effort like they did last night it will be inexplicable. Another, "Hey, we’re the Nuggets!" game will make me absolutely nuts. Some people were excusing last night’s performance to just a hot shooting night by the Bulls, but the defensive tone was set early on through Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah’s manhandling of Camby and Kenyon in the paint. It was an all around sorry effort. Had J.R. Smith not caught fire the Nuggets would have lost by 25.
The Nuggets have won four straight games in Milwaukee and they better make if five in a row tonight.
I recommend heading over to Brew Hoop, which is another amazing SB Nation site, for some perspective from Bucks fans.
