The Denver Nuggets have had a couple of very bad losses this season, one of which came against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Tonight, they get a chance to redeem themselves coming off of a great feel good win against the Sacramento Kings. They’re starting to get guys back from the injury report and the Thunder are, well, the Thunder.
They’re not a powerhouse and I think the Nuggets should be more than able to beat them. However, it is the 2022 Nuggets we’re talking about and they don’t have the best track record of beating bad teams. It should come out in Denver’s favor, but we shall see.
The Thunder on the other hand, have dropped six of their last eight games, and are on a three game skid of their own. They are mostly healthy, only missing Isaiah Roby and potentially Derrick Favors, but at the end of the day they still are less talented than most other NBA teams.
The Essentials:
Who: Denver Nuggets (19-18) vs Oklahoma City Thunder (13-25)
When: 5:00 PM MST
Where: Paycom Center, Oklahoma City, OK
How to watch/listen: AltitudeTV where available. League Pass for non-Denver market viewers. Show up in Oklahoma City. 92.5 FM KKSE Altitude Sports Radio.
Three Things To Watch
Michael Malone’s Return
Over the past 4 games, the Nuggets are 2-2 under Popeye Jones. However, Michael Malone is now expected to return to the bench and coach the Nuggets tonight. It will be interesting to see how the offense and defense play differently under Malone again, and if the vibe changes from switching coaches from Popeye to Malone.
A lot of the offense over the past four games was almost non-existent and there were a lot of possessions where it just came down to an isolation possession from players that should not be getting isolations. With Malone, the offense should be a lot more dynamic and fans should expect more actions to be run.
Who Will Be The Second Guy?
There are a lot of games this season where there has been a second player to step up besides Jokic and it’s not who fans typically expect. Take the Kings game for example, Jeff Green had a huge game for the Nuggets and was their second best player in that game. I wouldn’t be shocked if it was also Will, Monte, or AG either. It’ll be fun to see who the second guy is in this game.
Can Denver Play a Complete Game?
Denver currently has a top five net rating in the first half of games. In first halves, they are elite with a plus 7.5 net rating. However, they have a league worst -8.8 net rating and that is a terrible net rating if you couldn’t tell. The Nuggets have been a tale of two halves and fans should be hoping that they can be more consistent this game.
