RealGM

Golden win if we win.

Probably the game of the night IMO, this will test our metal. Could really use Gharris tonight, looks like he is still on the mend though. Bet on Torrey Craig starting, hope his defense can step up against Dame.

This game will set the tone for this 5-game road trip, mark my words on that !

Both teams are 5-5 in the last 10. Should be interesting. Of course their guards are the key, so our guards are the key.

NuggetsWY wrote:Both teams are 5-5 in the last 10. Should be interesting. Of course their guards are the key, so our guards are the key.

Then there's always that subplot " Fun with Nurkic"

Harris will play, so Denver will be stronger and deeper, and no so big advantage for Portland from backcourt like without Gary.

+15 on halftime should be enough, we are better team anyway. But we already have two low-energy 2 halves (vs MIL and OKC) after great 1st half vs good opponent, so lets hope team learned lesson, and close this game on routine way this time.

Everything is good in 1st half, especially offense and threes. Only Murray has bad shooting 1st half, and once again, I hate to see in so important road game 9 players with more minutes than Jokic. What Malone trying to prove with that I don't know.

Feeels like the refs want to have an impact on the end of this game.

HUGE 3 BY HARRIS !!

JOKE of a call, refs should overturn this or be fired!!

Nuggets WIN !!!!!

I was screaming after Harris hit that 3... Wish they didn't get the last shot off

Murray will have to play better if we want to win in TOR

Denver played with the fire once again in 2nd half on the road vs elite opponent after a comfortable big lead on halftime.

In the current 5-game winning streak, Nuggets overall best player is Millsap, and great performances from him continue with 22-10-4-4st all-star game tonight. After missing 2 games, no surprise Harris is hungry of basketball, and he has a great two-way game also with 27p (4 threes, including key ones). Bench and defense were not so great tonight compared to this season Denver new standards, but Morris 7-8 shooting deserved to be mentioned with playing 30 minutes.

The biggest drop of level in 2nd half have Jokic and Juancho, but they are so good in 1st half that overall grade is good for these two too, and let's hope Murray and Lyles 4-20 bad shooting night will motivate even more them to overperform in the very next "home" game vs Raptors in Canada.

Good win tonight you guys...and to think Harris wasn't even going to play You guys have a helluva team on your hands that is fun to watch.

Quick random-ish question,

To my eyes it looks like Jokic has gained a little bit of weight (and not the lean muscle kind). Is that a thing, or am I imagining it? Of course he never had David Robinson's physique, but is he actually a bit pudgy?

zzaj wrote:Good win tonight you guys...and to think Harris wasn't even going to play You guys have a helluva team on your hands that is fun to watch.

Quick random-ish question,

To my eyes it looks like Jokic has gained a little bit of weight (and not the lean muscle kind). Is that a thing, or am I imagining it? Of course he never had David Robinson's physique, but is he actually a bit pudgy?

This weight is better than last season for him because of Jokic definitely gains some muscle too, and because he rarely using vertical jump and speed anyway this new extra weight will be helpful in defense vs physically superior players. But this also should be his maximum weight for sure.

After the first half, I was prepared to say "spectacular win".
After the second half, I was just thankful for the win.

Offense - spectacular 1st half, far too much standing around during the 2nd half.

Defense - Pick-n-roll defense is still puzzling to me. I've said before, if I play the Nuggets, every play is a pick-n-roll involving one of our bigs. Portland did a great job at taking advantage of our p-n-r defense. If our guards are going to trail over the top, then our bigs must hedge out better (they did that well sometimes but were not consistent). Against guards like Portland's, our guards just can't go under the picks, so the hedging is important. On the other hand, beyond just hedging, it seems like far too often our bigs are not just hedging, but switching. Are they trying to prove how well they can play defense against guards? What's worse is, this hedging versus switching doesn't appear to be consistent. So how can our guards and other defenders know what to expect?

As a positive on defense, some of our defenders, especially the starters, were much better at providing help defense - especially in the first half.

Great win on the road, the refs almost screwed us over at the end there but we came through. I am pretty impressed how the team have played on the road which was a big problem for us last season. Glad to see Harris back he was huge, millsap has been great and having great % and Monte Morris man what to say he is everything we wanted when we were looking to trade and get a backup PG, we wanted someone who wasn't a turnover machine, morris brings that in spades and is the best at it in the league so far, his playmaking is fantastic, he has also been shooting is really well.

For me he has been the biggest suprise this year for us and is exactly the type of PG we have wanted or that pretty much any team would want to have. To have him looked up for such a cheap contract for three years is massive value, as he is playing he is probably worth around 6-8M on the market, teams really need those type of contract. Just look at the rockets with luc mbah moute last year for ex.

THE J0KER wrote:Denver played with the fire once again in 2nd half on the road vs elite opponent after a comfortable big lead on halftime.

We obviously saw different games them, re-watched the game last night and I really saw very little fire in that 2nd half, the execution was very poor IMO.

What is it about playing in Portland that all our wins seem to be in the last few seconds? We needed the win and got the win, but that 2nd half was bad.