Ok, revenge may be overstating if for the likes of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Yet, if the Nuggets are to continue the good vibes from their redemption-esque beatdown of the Golden State Warriors, they must do the same to the Wolves at the Pepsi Center tonight.

Game: 58

Records:
Denver: 31-26 (17-12 at home)
Streak: Won 1
Minnesota: 25-33
Streak: Lost 6

Injuries:
Denver: Wilson Chandler (a bad hip exacerbated by a case of the “mehs”) is day-to-day. Al Harrington (torn meniscus due to being ground into desert sand by his coach) is probable.
Minnesota: Ricky Rubio (out for season with bad beard syndrome) Darko Milicic (out for season with bad hamstring and second pick in draft-bust-itis) Luke Ridnour (day to day sore ankle caused from being perpetually the 4th banana)

Television: Altitude

Season Series: 1-1

Opposition’s Take: Canis Hoopus

Hey Nuggets? Yeah, I’m talking to you. Remember what you did against the Golden State Warriors? You know, beating them by almost 40 points? You do … great. Now, I want you to duplicate that performance against the short-handed Timberwolves at home. You think you can do that? I don’t believe it’s too much to ask, and quite frankly you owe it to yourselves and the fans to come out and destroy them like Godzilla stomping all over Tokyo. If it helps, attribute the quote, “hand down, man down” to Wolves coach Rick Adelman and just go for it.

The Timberwolves, after some early to mid-season promise, are the definition of a team that’s now playing out the string. They have lost six in a row and haven’t exactly looked good in doing so, despite the presence of Kevin Love, the rebounding machine. In fact, in their last meeting Love made the Nuggets look like chumps. He abused Kenneth Faried like he was a prom night tuxedo and that alone should be enough incentive to let our Manimal go wild.

You suppose that, after the beatdown the Nuggets suffered at the hands of the Timberwolves on March 25th that this will provide (along with continuing their playoff push and getting a better seed) all the incentive the Nuggets need to stay (hopefully) focused on the job at hand. Minnesota can still be a dangerous team with the occasional scoring ability of Michael Beasley and of course Love. Nuggets need to be on guard for a let-down.

Nuggets of Wisdom

Al Harrington has a torn meniscus. This would explain why he's been limping around for the last couple of games. He says he's gonna tough it out and play, not sure if that's a good idea but here we go. In actuality, despite being ridden so hard his knee exploded, Big Al has been extremely valuable to the Nuggets this season. Anything he can help the team out with I'm sure will be greatly appreciated.

Danilo Gallinari came back strong on Monday night. It became abundantly clear the team missed his “playmaking” ability. More than that, Gallo needed to be respected every time he touched the ball … and outside of Ty Lawson when he’s aggressive that hasn’t happened on this team. Also, his chemistry to Manimal is a great sign for the future. It’s pretty clear they have worked on getting in rhythm. Faried can be a beast, so it’s important to get him the ball in places where he can excel right now. Gallo in combination with Ty can do this.

The Nuggets center situation is weird right now. Kosta Koufos has been doing a good job holding down the 5 spot, but let’s face it, he’s the best of a decidedly average lot right now. The hope is that JaVale McGee can blossom into that “guy” and he has shown signs of understanding that. Consistency needs to be shown however. This is a big year for JaVale and he needs to show he’s progressing come contract time in the off-season. Hopefully this benefits the Nuggets.

Corey Brewer must not shoot another three-point shot as long as he remains a Nugget. Real talk.

Outside of that, this is a game the Nuggets can win. Hopefully they take care of business like they did against the Warriors.

Thanks for reading!!

Song of the game

Achilles Last Stand is one of those weird, rocking, ultra long songs that Led Zeppelin was cranking out toward the end of their run in the 70's. It's a very powerful song however, and this video features an extremely emaciated Jimmy Page (who by then had consumed enough heroin to take down three elephants) who managed to crank out an epic performance while wearing a nice blue button up shirt. Way to go James!

Led Zeppelin – Achilles Last Stand (Live Knebworth 1979) (via tokairock)