The Nuggets are hitting their stride right in the meat of the season. Winners of six in a row, Denver now looks to make it lucky number seven against the Portland Trail Blazers. Denver has some injuries to contend with, they will be without Russell Westbrook & Peyton Watson for sure and Michael Porter Jr. is listed as questionable. Meanwhile Portland is starting to get healthier, yet still is lottery bound once again. The Blazers were oddly inactive at the trade deadline leaving them still as a team with a weird mixture of young developing talent and also expensive win-now veterans. While things have been better lately in Portland, they once again look like a team slogging through a lost season.
The Essentials
Who: Denver Nuggets (34-19) vs Portland Trail Blazers (23-30)
When: 7PM MST
Where: The Can. Denver, CO.
How to watch/listen: Altitude TV (now on Comcast!), Altitude+, NBA League Pass for those not in the Nuggets market, Altitude Radio 92.5FM.
Rival blog: Blazer’s Edge
The Matchup
| Position | Nuggets | Blazers | Advantage |
| PG | Jamal Murray | Anfernee Simons | Nuggets |
| SG | Christian Braun | Toumani Camara | Nuggets |
| SF | Michael Porter Jr. | Deni Avdija | Nuggets |
| PF | Aaron Gordon | Jerami Grant | Nuggets |
| C | Nikola Jokic | DeAndre Ayton | Nuggets |
| Bench | Julian Strawther, DeAndre Jordan, Jalen Pickett, Hunter Tyson, Zeke Nnaji | Shaedon Sharpe, Scoot Henderson, Kris Murray, Robert Williams III, Donovan Clingan | Even |
Injury report: Aaron Gordon – probable (calf), Jamal Murray – probable (knee), Michael Porter Jr. – questionable (hamstring), Russell Westbrook – out (hamstring), Peyton Watson – out (knee), Vlatko Cancar – out (knee), DaRon Holmes II – out (achilles); Jerami Grant – questionable (knee), Robert Williams III – questionable (knee), Kris Murray – questionable (quad), Matisse Thybulle – out (ankle), Sidy Cissoko – out (G-League), Justin Minaya – out (G-League).
The Three Things
The thing to watch for: Players need to keep stepping up
With the possibility again tonight that Denver is down three rotation players, the Nuggets again need to have other guys step up at all levels. By other guys I mean basically everyone other than Nikola Jokic who always steps up. If MPJ is out then Jamal Murray once again needs to step up in a scoring role and provide the secondary scoring to Jokic. If Jamal is off, that responsibility falls to Aaron Gordon. With Russell Westbrook out Denver’s other key role players have to fill the gaps. Christian Braun needs to continue to get out and run and be aggressive to the basket. Julian Strawther needs to be another scoring option from outside. Jalen Pickett has to play strong minutes as a backup point guard. With Peyton Watson out Zeke Nnaji needs to continue to be a serviceable defensive big (who can hopefully hit a shot or two). Nuggets run of good play over the past month or so isn’t because Nikola is dominating. He is doing that of course, but he was doing that at the beginning of the year as well. The difference has been the contributions of the guys around them and how they’ve stepped their games up.
The thing to remember: Portland may be figuring some things out
Nobody expects the Blazers to make the playoffs but if you look at the standings they’re just four losses back of the play-in. That’s because Portland has won 10 of their last 12 games. They’ve been doing it largely with defense. They haven’t allowed a single team to score over 120 in the past dozen games, and in their ten wins have allowed just two teams to score over 110 while holding six under 105. Meanwhile Anfernee Simons is still the straw that stirs the drink on offense for Portland, but DeAndre Ayton has been solid as of late and, like Denver, Portland’s less heralded role players have been stepping up. The Nuggets will need to stay focused tonight, they can’t simply look at the overall records and assume this is an easy W.
The thing to bet: Jokic over 10.5 assists (+105)
Portland has a decent amount of size to throw at Nikola with Ayton and Robert Williams III but last time these teams played they were content to let Jokic be a scorer…he dropped 34 on them. I’m thinking they adjust tonight and try to force the ball out of his hands a bit more. Jok hasn’t been piling up monster assist numbers lately (still basically good for 10 a night though) so the odds are trending in our favor at +105.
