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The top two WC seeds from the previous season face each other already in this season opener!

Tough matchup to start the season, is this a MUST WIN game ??? Just kidding, really but this game can really be a tone-setter for the season. We'll see how the chemistry is with both the starting lineup as well as the newly improved bench. Hoping to see PsWatt back on the court, how CB takes on SGA and if AG and MPJ can deal with Chet and JWilliams of theThunder.

Go NUGGETS !

MPJ misses his first 2 3-pts shots. Holmgren is cold as well

WB still can't shoot, not playing great on the offensive end, but still can bring the D

Only shooting 2 for 14 from the 3-pt arc....gotta improve

Thunder bench ripping ours, outscoring the Nuggets bench 17-9. Our bench only shot 4-13, WB 1-5

Braun looks like he's fitting in with the starters, he's scored 10 points on hustle and awareness alone.

-7 on halftime.

C.Braun has a great debut as a starter, which is the most positive thing from the 1st half.

Jokic and AG played their game, but Joker definitely needed to take more shots than 5 in a half.

Murray and MPJ didn't shoot well but the starters were good in general, but the bench underperformed (Russ and Strawther -16 in +/- both). Westbrook energized the team and had some nice passes, but he should not shoot 3pts too much.

If we lose tonight it will be 4th straight loss vs OKC at home. Nobody beat us 4 times in a row at home during the Jokic era.

Holmgren doing the damage tonight but our lack of 3-point shooting is what’s killing us

Denver lacks depth.

Either Gordon or MPJ has to be traded for some bench pieces imo.

I didn't expect to see a low-energy game at home in literally 1st game of the season vs title contender. The team is injury-free but looks like just 85% ready for the start of the season. The good thing is that our next three opponents are beatable even with 85% of our A-game.

Dario Saric was gassed out 4 minutes into this game. Utterly atrocious performance.

Russ looked bad and Malone is insane to play him next to Murray. One point guard on the floor at a time, Malone. No more, no less.

Murray and Porter didn't carry their share tonight.

CB hesitant to take 3s.

Is it too early too declare that we have a coaching problem? Malone is here for 10 years, but defensive and offensive coaches are not the same. Maybe some of them had bigger influence than we tough.

So from last nights game Nuggets starting lineup of
A. Gordon - N. Jokić - J. Murray - M. Porter Jr. - C. Braun was +7 in 25 minutes

Projected bench lineup (+ Murray) of
R. Westbrook - D. Šarić - J. Murray - J. Strawther - P. Watson was -6 in 11 minutes. Not good but not so bad. Russ with Watson as non shooter + 3 shooters. Russ had a ball in his hands to do his crazy ****

Here is where Nuggets lost a game
R. Westbrook - A. Gordon - N. Jokić - M. Porter Jr. - J. Strawther was -7 in 2 minutes
R. Westbrook - A. Gordon - N. Jokić - J. Strawther - P. Watson was -5 in 1.6 minutes
R. Westbrook - N. Jokić - J. Murray - J. Strawther - P. Watson was -4 in 0.9 minutes

All of these lineups had one thing in common - R. Westbrook + N. Jokić + one more non shooter (A. Gordon or P. Watson or both)
It can't work that way.

One more thing with Russ - Jokic paring. It can work ONLY if they play high PNR or DHO with 3 shooters. What plays did Malone call when they were on the court together? Jokic on the post with Russ behind the 3 pt line in the corner.

One more thing to add. All Nuggets players had DEFRTG of 110 or less except R. Westbrook with 118 and J. Strawther with 131. J. Strawther was in all those terrible lineups. Last season his NETRTG was -9.8 for season. Nuggets started clicking last year when they replaced him with Justin Holiday who is not here any more. He is at home unsigned. It is not that I don't belive in J. Strawther but if he can't get defensive principles and rotations bench him.

One more interesting stat from this game.

Denver Nuggets starters had rebounding percentage of 58.4% in 33 minutes
Denver Nuggets bench had rebounding percentage of 42.6% in 15 minutes

https://www.nba.com/stats/teams/advanced?TeamID=1610612743&StarterBench=Bench

Who would have said so if you play 2 PGs + 1 SG as SF + 1 SF as PF and 1 C (not very athletic) you will get outrebounded. Maybe after preseason Nnaji had, he deserved some time as 3 pt shooter, defender...

Some more observations from 1 game
Last season Russ was +1.5 for the season in 22 minutes
In his first game with the Nuggets he was -24 in 21 minutes
Last season with the Clippers he had just 1 game of 68 with worst +- of -26

Attitude seems like an issue to me. Not only with the Nuggets but still a problem for the Nuggets in my opinion. We not only lose points when players stay behind on breaks (and other times) to argue with refs, but it seems like hustle is less important to far too many athletes than winning.

what's with Malone's obsession of playing Murray and Russ together..

The bench rotation should be

PG: Murray or Westbrook, never both
SG: Always Strawther
SF: Watson, Vlatko when Watson struggles
PF: Porter or Saric or Vlatko
C: Saric or Jokic

Don't play Westbrook with Murray
Don't stagger Gordon or Braun with the bench.
Don't play Westbrook, Watson, and Braun at the same time. Two of the three at a time, at most.

I think this season we have bench guys that can mesh together pretty well. Malone's dream, but for some reason he didn't try it. They can play

PG: Westbrook
SG: Strawther
SF: Watson
PF: Zake/Cancar
C: Saric

play high pnr/dho with Saric/Westbrook. Saric should play pick and pop to spreat the court. Zake and Strawther in the corners, Watson in the dunker spots. Court is open with 3 shooters, Russ has space. Don't use Zake in pnr he is terrible in that. Don't use Watson as 3 pt shooter. Defensively Saric at the level in pnr, with Watson and Zake as help defenders protecting the rim. Rebounding shouldn't be a problem with bigger lineup. As people pointed no Murray with Westbrook, Strawther is SG not SF, Watson is SF not PF. If he has to stagger somebody with the bench it should be MPJ as PF to cover shooting and rebounding.

Zeke is a waste of time. We have more than enough of a sample size that says his ball skills (or complete lack thereof) will hurt us on offense in the long run. Vlatko is your bench PF.

The only reason Zeke should see the court is if Saric/Jokic are in foul trouble.