Game 71: Denver Nuggets (46-24) @ Detroit Pistons (20-50) - 8:00PM

ducler · Post #1 » by **ducler** » Fri May 14, 2021 8:27 pm

Post #2 » by **NuggetsWY** » Sat May 15, 2021 12:02 am

Hard to predict anything about these end of season games but I have no doubt Detroit will bring energy. Let's hope Denver matches it - and since we're already playing a lot of bench players, we'll go deeper. This is the chance for some of our end-of-bench players to show what they can do - hopefully they bring some energy.

GeorgeSears · Post #3 » by **GeorgeSears** » Sat May 15, 2021 5:20 am

Solid win. I'm glad that the bench got some playing time. The one thing that does concern me a little bit is the 3pt shooting. I don't expect MPJ to go 1-7 that often but Jokic didn't take a 3 and hasn't made a 3 in the last 4 games, JaMychal was 1-5 and has been in a bad shooting slump in May, Rivers is hit and miss from 3.

TunaFish · Post #4 » by **TunaFish** » Sat May 15, 2021 1:02 pm

If you start Cancar and Howard you expect to lose. Howard has a career high and Cancar is solid. Detroit is really bad.

Mickey8 · Post #5 » by **Mickey8** » Sat May 15, 2021 2:11 pm

I hope Malone grow some balls to play Jokic and McGee together in the play off's.

skywalker33 · Post #6 » by **skywalker33** » Sat May 15, 2021 2:48 pm

TunaFish wrote:If you start Cancar and Howard you expect to lose. Howard has a career high and Cancar is solid. Detroit is really bad.

Granted, DET is really bad without Grant but it was interesting to see Cancar and Howard, they both had nice production in their starting roles. Experience is a good thing for the end of bench players, Malone.

Post #7 » by **The Rebel** » Sat May 15, 2021 3:17 pm

Howard looked like the bench scorer we have needed for years. With his size disadvantage and bad defense I don't know how you find a lineup that works with him, but it would be nice to have a guy who can actually score when Jokic and MPJ are out of the game.

Richard Miller · Post #8 » by **Richard Miller** » Sat May 15, 2021 3:53 pm

The Rebel wrote:Howard looked like the bench scorer we have needed for years. With his size disadvantage and bad defense I don't know how you find a lineup that works with him, but it would be nice to have a guy who can actually score when Jokic and MPJ are out of the game.

Murray was "bad defense" for a long time, even this year he was ball watching on occasion. As long as the opponents aren't taking advantage of that (I doubt many opposing benches would be able to do that anyway), he'll be fine. Much bigger problem usually was when the bench can't score to save their life.

Post #9 » by **NuggetsWY** » Sun May 16, 2021 5:06 pm

A game that didn't mean much, playing a lineup we hope we won't see in this year's playoffs, against a team that was missing half of their roster --- all totals a game that didn't mean much. But I enjoyed it because we got to see the deep end of our bench.

GeorgeSears wrote:Solid win. I'm glad that the bench got some playing time. The one thing that does concern me a little bit is the 3pt shooting. I don't expect MPJ to go 1-7 that often but Jokic didn't take a 3 and hasn't made a 3 in the last 4 games, JaMychal was 1-5 and has been in a bad shooting slump in May, Rivers is hit and miss from 3.

Agree - totally :laugh:

TunaFish wrote:If you start Cancar and Howard you expect to lose. Howard has a career high and Cancar is solid. Detroit is really bad.

Exactly - Nice to see them get PT - and if Jokic wasn't there, we still might have lost even against Detroit. :meditate:

Mickey8 wrote:I hope Malone grow some balls to play Jokic and McGee together in the play off's.

I'm not so sure about that :confused:

Then again, against certain lineups :dontknow:

The Rebel wrote:Howard looked like the bench scorer we have needed for years. With his size disadvantage and bad defense I don't know how you find a lineup that works with him, but it would be nice to have a guy who can actually score when Jokic and MPJ are out of the game.

That was his reputation coming into the league. I'd love to see him get a few minutes in the first half and if he's hot, keep him shooting -and go from there.

Richard Miller wrote:Murray was "bad defense" for a long time, even this year he was ball watching on occasion. As long as the opponents aren't taking advantage of that (I doubt many opposing benches would be able to do that anyway), he'll be fine. Much bigger problem usually was when the bench can't score to save their life.

Murray's defense has improved and it was at least a net positive this year. I think it'll keep getting better but I don't look for him to become a stopper. I love how he battles bigs in the low post when caught on a switch out.

Howard, like Campazzo, will probably never be anything but a "pest" on defense - hustle must be a part of their defense at all times.