The Denver Nuggets run in the NBA Cup will come to an end tonight. After dropping two games (including an egregious loss against the hapless New Orleans Pelicans) in the Cup the Nuggets have already been eliminated from knockout round contention. There’s still the matter of the fourth game in their group play though and the last opponent from that group that they will face is the Golden State Warriors tonight. Golden State is aging gracefully in Stephen Curry’s twilight years and once again the Warriors are off to a good start to the season. The Nuggets meanwhile are trying to find some consistency and there’s no better time than the present.
The Essentials
Who: Denver Nuggets (10-8) vs Golden State Warriors (12-7)
When: 8:00 PM MST
Where: The Can. Denver, CO.
How to watch/listen: TNT. Altitude Radio 92.5 FM. Roll into Ball arena rocking fly gear and some Joker 1s and they’ll probably think you’re just part of Nikola Jokic’s marketing team.
Rival blog: Golden State of Mind
The Matchup
| Position | Nuggets | Warriors | Advantage |
| PG | Jamal Murray | Steph Curry | Warriors |
| SG | Christian Braun | Brandin Podziemski | Even |
| SF | Michael Porter Jr. | Andrew Wiggins | Even |
| PF | Aaron Gordon | Trayce Jackson-Davis | Nuggets |
| C | Nikola Jokic | Kevon Looney | Nuggets |
| Bench | Russell Westbrook, Julian Strawther, Peyton Watson, Hunter Tyson | Jonathan Kuminga, Buddy Hield, Lindy Waters III, Gary Payton II, Kyle Anderson | Even |
The Three Things
The thing to watch for: Steph Curry vs Jamal Murray
It hasn’t been the start anyone, including Jamal, wanted this season but I’m not all that concerned about his shooting/offensive woes. Murray figures that stuff out as the season goes along and we’ve seen it plenty of times before that, when healthy, he can turn it up come Spring. His defense though…yikes. Tonight he draws the legendary and still incredibly lethal Curry as a defensive assignment. Sure, Michael Malone will try to sic Christian Braun on Curry to make his life difficult but it’s very apparent that teams are hunting switches to get their premier perimeter scorer matched up with Murray and I wouldn’t expect tonight, or any night in the near future, to be different. Murray is going to have to find his defensive legs or this will be an issue all season long.
The thing to remember: Draymond probably isn’t playing
The Warriors are listing Draymond Green as questionable but Steve Kerr says it’s more like doubtful. Green also did not practice with the Warriors in Denver yesterday. Losing Draymond makes life pretty difficult for the Warriors. Typically they’d start him at the four with Kevon Looney at the five and let Green hound Jokic all night but that won’t be an option for them tonight. I imagine Looney gets the start tonight and most of the Nikola duties which is less than ideal for the Warriors. There’s not much in the way of size to speak of for the Warriors. Two-way contract seven footer Quinten Post hasn’t played this season and after him there’s not another player on the roster over 6’9″. We may very well end up seeing some Kyle Anderson vs Nikola Jokic minutes tonight and we know how that goes as well (advantage: Nikola).
The thing to bet: Nikola Jokic 13+ assists (+325)
Alright, we’re getting a little risky here with an alternate bet that’s pretty far from the line. If you want, you can take Jokic over 9.5 assists at -120 and cash that free money, but I’m gambling tonight. Like I said, the Warriors have no size and no Draymond. The doubles on Nikola will come with every post touch which means he’s going to be diming up his teammates all night. It would not shock me to see him put up some big assist numbers tonight.
