The Denver Nuggets (4-3) have started the season pretty decently and are sitting above .500 in a western conference with a decent amount of disappointing teams early on. Meanwhile, the Memphis Grizzlies (4-3) have surpassed many expectations people had for them coming into the season so far. Both teams starts are in large part due to their MVP candidates, being Nikola Jokic and Ja Morant respectively. Both have been just fantastic to start the year.
The two teams did meet earlier in the week on Monday where Memphis beat the Nuggets with a final score of 106-97. The game was close for the majority of the game, but Memphis ultimately pulled away lead by Ja Morant scoring 26 points on 12-22 from the field. The Nuggets struggled to shoot the ball, and despite a decent defensive effort fell short due to their offense. Will Barton had his first stinker all year; only having 4 points on 1-8 from the field and 0-2 from 3. As well as Michael Porter struggling on offense yet again, specifically at putting the ball in the hoop.
The Essentials
Who: Denver Nuggets (4-3) @ Memphis Grizzlies (4-3)
When: 6:00 p.m. MST
Where: FedEx Forum
How to watch/listen: AltitudeTV if you’re in the demographics that have it. League Pass for non-Denver market viewers. 92.5 FM KKSE Altitude Sports Radio
Three Things to Watch
Getting Michael Porter Jr. Out of His Slump
Michael Porter Jr. has struggled a lot during this season. He’s been better than last year at a few things; such as his passing and defense, but ultimately has struggled at his calling card, shooting. The guy is known for being a hyper efficient scorer, but has failed to crack 20 points once this season, and 15 points only once. He is also shooting 34.5% from the floor, and an even worse 23.3% from 3. I think it’s just a slump and once he sees the ball go through the hoop he will start putting up the number we all know he’s capable of again. We’ll just have to see if it happens this game or not.
Will Barton Bounce Back Game
Will Barton has been the second best player for the Nuggets this season. However, he did terribly against the Grizzlies Monday, as noted earlier. The Nuggets will need him in full swing if they want to get a win later today. I’m not all that concerned with Will as Monday was the only awful game we’ve seen from him all year. I feel pretty confident in saying he’ll have a good performance tonight.
The Nuggets 3 Point Shooting
The Nuggets have gotten by so far on inside scoring. They are 1st in the league at the rim efficiency according to cleaningtheglass.com. However, they rank 26th in 3 point shooting, and that just won’t do in today’s game. They’re shooting an abysmal 31.2% from beyond the arc. Only 5 players for the Nuggets are shooting above league average (34.2%) from 3, those players being Zeke Nnaji, Nikola Jokic, Bones Hyland, PJ Dozier, and Will Barton. Only 4 of those are rotational players, and only 3 have been in the rotation all year. On top of that they shot 23.7% (9/38) from 3 last game in Memphis. They’ll need more than that to beat Memphis.
