On the day after Thanksgiving, the Denver Nuggets look to halt their current 4 game losing streak against the team that began it – the San Antonio Spurs. Even with the three home games, the Nuggets have faced top teams in pretty much every game. The only possible exception was the Phoenix Suns, but their back court of Eric Bledsoe and Brandon Knight has torched the opposition all season. Given the porous Denver three point defense, that loss was not unexpected either.
In their last match up, the Spurs used a series of pick and rolls to pick apart the Nuggets. If Denver wants to turn things around, they will need to do a much better job of stopping this staple of every NBA offense. The failure to play effectively against pick and roll offenses falls on both the guards and the bigs. Denver’s guards need to be much more proactive when facing the screen, working hard to get on top of it instead of blithely acquiescing to going under. The bigs need to hedge better, or, if catching, not get caught in between the big and the guard. Too often, our bigs are stuck between the two – neither hedging nor catching. They end up floating between choices, making none, and giving up both the shot and the pass. If Joffrey Lauvergne is able to return to action, he could make a large difference in this area.
