Game 51: Houston Rockets (29-21) @ Denver Nuggets (35-15) - 10:00 PM ET

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[NuggetsWY]

Will Barton isn't starting? Did I miss something?
Nuggets' guards are the key to this game.

Who is Jokic going to be covering? Houston's center's tend to be very active in terms of movement. Sure, Millsap can handle that, especially with Faried starting, but then Jokic has to move out and cover Tucker. Jokic will be challenged on the defensive end for certain. Seems like we need some zone defense - but I don't remember the Nuggets doing much zone.

Guards & Center - seems to me that's why we have so much trouble beating Houston. Oh yeah, and our 3 pt defense philosophy says "fly by" the 3 pt shooters. Houston knows that and they do a pump fake and have a wide open 3 pt shot --- killing us.

[Mickey8]

Jokic is not a problem, Capella is not the problem when he's on the court. Its Denver's inability to slow down Harden even a little. Jokic should have 30+ game tonight , no one to guard him on that Rockets roster.

[Manolito]

Jokic is not a problem, Capella is not the problem when he's on the court. Its Denver's inability to slow down Harden even a little. Jokic should have 30+ game tonight , no one to guard him on that Rockets roster.

If we win tonight, Rockets shall be 7 games behind with 31 games remaining, top4 seed will be very likely guaranteed.

Anyway it will be really tough. Houston is our worst matchup and no Murray tonight.

Sent from my Aquaris M5 using RealGM mobile app

[U hova]

Hey it's kenny!

[skywalker33]

Jokic is not a problem, Capella is not the problem when he's on the court. Its Denver's inability to slow down Harden even a little. Jokic should have 30+ game tonight , no one to guard him on that Rockets roster.

Don't know what team you're thinking of, but Capella usually has great games against us, puts up a strong PnR power game. I'm glad he's not playing in this one.

[Powder Blue]

Rockets always torch us...and now they’ll have a fired up Faried and we’re minus Murray. Uh-oh

[THE J0KER]

Just about a week ago seems we will get a free win in our most important matchup (together with OKC) this season in Western TOP3 seed race. Capela and Paul were out and all Nuggets are healthy, but in meantime, Murray was injured, Paul was back from injury, and former Nuggets Kenneth Faried has the great debut for his new team averaging 15-10 double-double for them so far. So, if we want to win this hard matchup tonight, it would be in a harder way.

An eventual win would be a giant step forward for securing TOP3 spot for Nuggets. Despite being current #6, Houston is actually more dangerous TOP3 contender than #4/POR or #5/SAS (or #9/LAL for which is too late even if they get A.Davis now). Actually, Nuggets would be temporarily once again (tied) #1 on the West, with only Bucks having a better record in the whole league!

With Harden playing historic numbers this month and CP3 is back, Rockets will have a huge advantage on the backcourt spots, while Jokic and Millsap should dominate Rockets on big men position. We loss all-3 games vs Houston last season and so far both this season and probably key stats in these 5 games are humiliating 3pt numbers 87 vs 41 in Houston favor. Our most efficient 3pt shooters this season are Beasley, Morris, and Barton, so they all three should get 30+ minutes tonight, and I hope this OP starting lineup with Craig is a mistake. Talking about playing time minutes I hope Malone finally realize that in games of this importance Nikola Jokic should play close to 40 not just above 30 minutes. Jokic and Harden playing on GOAT level this month, where Harden played more than half of his last 15 games over 40 minutes and Jokic only 4 over 35 minutes. Harden should not play over 5+ minutes more than Jokic.

[skywalker33]

I've heard "1st team to 100 wins" just never heard it happening in the 1st half

[THE J0KER]

What a spectacular 48-28 second quarter for Denver! Malone fulfills my wish to maximize use of our best and most efficient 3pt shooters Beasley and Morris (+Barton), but I guess this is more coming from the fact Harris is out. It is proven several times in past two seasons that we simply have no answer against this Rockets offense, so the only way to beat them is to outscore them. Bizarre 83-71 score at the halftime is exactly what we needed.

[FilNugsFan]

Beasley having a career night!

[FilNugsFan]

No room for complacency here. A 10+ pt. lead is never safe against a good 3-pt. shooting team.

[skywalker33]

Great game by Beasley very efficient shooting night.

[THE J0KER]

My favorite win this season so far. Sadly Juancho didn't score that last shot, Joker deserved today 30+ triple-double with 100%+ TS%. But it is more Malone fault... he must schedule players minute on a different way in such important (or playoff) games, there is no sense of Jokic playing just 31 minutes in a game like this. I'm not talking about this because of that missing triple-double of course, but because of next time Harden will be more inspired, Capela will be there, and Gordon will not leave the game due to injury, so playing just 31 minutes with Jokic would be very dangerous. Jokic in 31 minutes 31-13-9 (12-15), Lyles in 17 minutes 4-1-1 (1-6) time distribution makes no sense at all, Joker should play 35+ minutes, and especially more than 5 in 4th.

I'm speechless how Beasley, Morris, and Craig solved huge backcourt problem with Denver missing today both starting guards Murray and Harris. 27-39 70%fg% including 17-20 for 2p and 10-19 for 3pt are out of the blue shooting stats. Beasly with career-high outscored Harden, Morris outplayed CP3, Craig more useful than Gordon... I can't believe what kind of the game I just watched.

Millsap, Barton, and Faried also deserved big credit, despite Faried are not playing for Denver anymore. He definitely should take big minutes last season during Millsap injury. It is crazy we must lose our 1st round pick to get rid of the expiring contract of such player in his prime years, just because we make him a negative asset with humiliating playing time. We should learn from that case this season, and if some of our good players have no future when everyone is healthy (Barton?, Lyles?, IT?), we should trade him in the next 5 days, before this season trade deadline, not wait for his trade value declines badly.

[NuggetsWY]

What a tremendous game - the biggest question was which team would actually play defense. Well, that was in the first half.

Stars of the game included Jokic, of course. But who would have expected Beasley, Morris, and Craig to also have great games - all in the same game?

[Mac1958]

Morris is a GEM.

[Maf]

What a Win!!! After 1st q I thought Rockets just can't miss any shot. Since than Nuggets went crazy. Jokič, Beasley, Craig, Morris... awesome. If I was at this game I probably wouldn't sit down since start of the 2nd q and would be jumping there like crazy.

Ok, let's be negative for a change. Didn't like Barton tonight. Seemed kinda selfish to me. And Lyles played like Lyles again but that's nothing new.

[ThunderBolt]

Clearly the Denver FO has failed. You guys have no guards on the roster. Harris, Beasley, Murray and Barton just don't provide any offense. I would trade any or all of them to divisional rivals.

Good win guys. I hate the rockets.

[The Rebel]

It is nice to finally get a win against the Rockets, it is the 1st one since Malone came here. Maybe Malone finally figured out that you can just outscore the Rockets when you have our guards and Jokic.

[NuggetsWY]

What a Win!!! After 1st q I thought Rockets just can't miss any shot. Since than Nuggets went crazy. Jokič, Beasley, Craig, Morris... awesome. If I was at this game I probably wouldn't sit down since start of the 2nd q and would be jumping there like crazy.

Ok, let's be negative for a change. Didn't like Barton tonight. Seemed kinda selfish to me. And Lyles played like Lyles again but that's nothing new.

I didn't see Barton as selfish - mostly because he wasn't chucking shots all over.