Last week was a roller coaster for Denver. They started by splitting two games in Oklahoma City, then put up a dud against a division rival, escaped with a victory in an important seeding game, and finished the week by blowing it against the worst team in the NBA. More down than up all things considered, so the Nuggets get a chance to regain some confidence (and calm their fans) by having a successful road trip. It starts tonight against a Golden State Warriors team that is red hot. The Warriors looked like a team headed for the play-in once again this year but their late season run, including their current seven game win streak, has them trying to hold off the Minnesota Timberwolves for the last guaranteed playoff spot. Steph Curry is still playing at a very high level, Jimmy Butler appears to be a successful addition to the team and players like Jonathan Kuminga are getting healthy. It’s a tall task tonight for Denver.
The Essentials
Who: Denver Nuggets (43-25) at Golden State Warriors (39-28)
When: 8PM MDT
Where: It’s like being stuck with the terrible service of a cable television provider, but with your bank!…center. San Francisco, CA.
How to watch/listen: Denver Stiffs does not condone piracy…unless it’s the romanticized 17th century type. Altitude TV, Altitude +, ESPN, Altitude Radio 92.5FM. Show up at the arena and say you heard about a great sale on Birkenstocks.
Rival blog: Golden State of Mind
The Matchup
| Position | Nuggets | Warriors | Advantage |
| PG | Jamal Murray | Steph Curry | Warriors |
| SG | Christian Braun | Moses Moody | Nuggets |
| SF | Michael Porter Jr. | Jimmy Butler | Even |
| PF | Aaron Gordon | Jonathan Kuminga | Nuggets |
| C | Nikola Jokic | Draymond Greene | Nuggets |
| Bench | Peyton Watson, Zeke Nnaji, Russell Westbrook | Gary Payton II, Buddy Hield, Quinten Post, Gui Santos, Kevon Looney | Warriors |
Injury report: Christian Braun – probable (foot), Nikola Jokic – questionable (elbow & ankle), Jamal Murray – questionable (ankle), Aaron Gordon – questionable (calf & ankle), Julian Strawther – out (knee), DaRon Holmes II – out (achilles), Trey Alexander – out (G-League); Steph Curry – questionable (back), Quinten Post – questionable (ankle), Brandin Podziemski – out (back).
The Three Things
The thing to watch for: Effort
For the love of god, I just want to see Denver play hard for 48 minutes. Multiple players talked about effort after the Nuggets loss to the Washington Wizards with Nikola Jokic saying that Denver can’t think they can just flip on a switch. After a pretty rocky week, the Nuggets are in a four way tie in the loss column for the second seed. They could land anywhere from the #2 seed all the way to not having homecourt advantage at all in the playoffs as a #5 seed. Add in the fact that the #6 and #7 seeds are on an absolute tear right now and the Nuggets are legitimately threatened by the possibility of being a play-in team. It’s never been a matter of talent with this team, it’s always a matter of effort. The time to start playing your best basketball is now and that starts with consistent effort night in and night out. Time for Denver to kick it into high gear.
The thing to remember: Nikola (and by extension Denver) crushes the Warriors
Even back in the dynasty days, Jokic has given Golden State fits. More often than not the Warriors go with the “make Nikola a scorer” strategy and more often than not he puts up big numbers on them. Draymond Greene never backs down from the challenge but he’s simply too short and gains no strength advantage like he would against less beefy bigs. Throughout Joker’s career the Warriors have never had a premier defensive center with size and that’s still the case, so much so that Denver has won the last eight games against the Warriors.
The thing to bet: Nikola Jokic over 1.5 three pointers (+125)
Jokic has made two or more three pointers in three straight games against the Warriors and has taken ten attempts in the past two games against them. He’s not shot it well from outside the past couple games so that’s why the odds are up at +125 but given the Warriors’ willingness to make him a scorer and their willingness to live with his outside shots, I’m thinking this is a solid bet tonight. Of course, I can’t remember the last time I got one of these damn things right so perhaps fading is the way to go.
