The Denver Nuggets are in the home stretch. With just eight games remaining Denver currently is chasing the second seeded Houston Rockets while trying to hold off the fourth seeded Los Angeles Lakers. They get a chance tonight to put another tick in the win column with the Utah Jazz, aka the worst record in the NBA, in town. Utah is trying to reach the top of the NBA lottery so they can have the best chance at landing the top pick in the draft. If Denver takes care of business, it should be an easy W.
The Essentials
Who: Denver Nuggets (46-28) vs Utah Jazz (16-58)
When: 7PM MDT
Where: The Can. Denver, CO.
How to watch/listen: Denver Stiffs does not condone piracy…unless it’s the romanticized 17th century type. Altitude TV, Altitude+, NBA League Pass for those not in the Nuggets market, Altitude Radio 92.5FM. Show up rocking a Cooper Flagg jersey and Utah’s GM probably whisks you right in to his suite.
Rival blog: SLC Dunk
The Matchup
| Position | Nuggets | Jazz | Advantage |
| PG | Jamal Murray | Collin Sexton | Nuggets |
| SG | Christian Braun | Isaiah Collier | Nuggets |
| SF | Michael Porter Jr. | Cody Williams | Nuggets |
| PF | Aaron Gordon | Kyle Filipowski | Nuggets |
| C | Nikola Jokic | Walker Kessler | Nuggets |
| Bench | Russell Westbrook, Peyton Watson, DeAndre Jordan, Jalen Pickett | Brice Sensabaugh, Johnny Juzang, Keyonte George, KJ Martin, Jaden Springer | Even |
Injury report*: Michael Porter Jr. – probable (back), Aaron Gordon – probable (calf & ankle), Nikola Jokic – probable (ankle), Christian Braun – probable (foot), Jamal Murray – questionable (hamstring), DaRon Holmes II – out (achilles), Julian Strawther – out (knee); Lauri Markkanen – questionable (fat), Elijah Harkless – questionable (groin), Jordan Clarkson – out (foot), John Collins – out (ankle) Taylor Hendricks – out (leg).
The Three Things
The thing to watch for: Denver vs the bigs
Nikola Jokic returned to the lineup on Wednesday night and looked like he hadn’t missed a beat. The Jazz bring some size to the table though with Walker Kessler and Kyle Filipowski plus Lauri Markkanen has some length if he’s able to go tonight. I don’t worry much about Jokic, he’ll do what the best player on earth does, but how Michael Malone approaches his backup big rotation will be interesting. It appeared that Zeke Nnaji had solidified his spot as the backup 5, but a stumble over the past couple weeks brought DeAndre Jordan back into the fold. However, in Denver’s last game Malone basically didn’t play a center at all (DJ got three minutes). How Denver approaches Utah’s size with their backup rotation will be interesting.
The thing to remember: the Jazz players don’t care about the lottery
It’d be nice to be able to see the worst team in the NBA coming to town, on a back to back, and be able to just pencil in a win. We know that’s not the way it goes with this team though. As much as the Jazz front office wants to lose so that they can draft Cooper Flagg this Summer, the players aren’t trying to lose so a new kid can come in and take their jobs. This feels a bit like a trap game and the Nuggets have certainly been guilty of overlooking teams (cough…Wizards…cough). They don’t have the time left in the season to make up dropping games against inferior teams so they need to take care of business.
The thing to bet: Nikola Jokic over 9.5 assists (+100)
Even money on Jokic getting double digit assists tonight. He actually generally does not hit ten assists against the Jazz but did get eleven in their last contest and nine in the one before so he’s been right around it this year. Generally speaking, I always feel good about getting even money on Jokic hitting ten assists.
