The Denver Nuggets will try to keep pace for the eighth seed in the West with another win at a place they’ve suffered some tough and frustrating losses: Pepsi Center (aka home). The Nuggets welcome in the Orlando Magic who are currently 17-25 and 12th in the Eastern Conference playoff race on Monday, Jan. 16 for a 3 p.m. game as part of the the Martin Luther King Jr. Remembrance Day. This is a game that the Nuggets are surely capable of winning, here are the keys to ensure a victory:
Use The Bench
The Denver Nuggets have had some recent success against the Magic as they beat them just a month ago on Dec. 10. In that game, Denver was playing its fifth game on a six-game, 11-day road trip, but there were a lot of positives to look at. In that game, Denver showed depth as they had six players score in double digits, including a breakout game from Juancho Hernangomez who finished with 14 points in only 18 minutes, a double-double from Faried (19 points, 10 rebounds) and Jusuf Nurkic had 17 points and eight rebounds. This time around, Coach Malone should go to the bench to shake things up as it seemed to work in the first meeting between the two teams.
Attack the Paint
Although Nikola Vucevic wasn’t available in the Dec. 10 meeting between the two teams, the story of the game was Denver’s inside presence. The Nuggets dominated the interior as they scored a season-high 64 points in the paint. With there being a change in the lineup since then (Jokic and Nurkic were both in the starting lineup at the time), I don’t expect there to be the same kind of success as before in the paint, but Nuggets should make a conscious effort to attack Vucevic. He is a big man that’s not known for his defensive abilities. Attacking the rim could also get Serge Ibaka in foul trouble.
Feed Off the London Game
The Nuggets just snapped a five-game losing streak with a convincing win over the Indiana Pacers. As if that sentence wasn’t already shocking enough, the location might do it for you. The Nuggets traveled all the way to London to play arguably their best game of the season. Danilo Gallinari got hot, Emmanuel Mudiay put together one of his best outings in quite some time and Nikola Jokic dazzled. The Nuggets scored 140 points and also played some pretty good defense – and that’s saying enough. One of the biggest factors that almost all players attributed to having a good game was the atmosphere as it was a sold out and surprisingly pro-Nuggets crowd. If the Nuggets can play that brand of basketball and get on a winning streak, it’ll be no time until they get those fans back in the Pepsi Center. It starts Monday with the Orlando Magic
