WHO: Denver Nuggets vs. Portland Trail Blazers
WHAT: The home opener!!
WHERE: Pepsi Center
WHEN: 7:00 p.m.
HOW: Altitude or NBA League Pass
THE STORY: Let’s not only welcome basketball back to the Pepsi Center, as the Nuggets face off against the Portland Trailblazers, but let’s welcome back Hall of Famer Dikembe Mutombo, as his jersey ascends into the rafters for good!
Three Things To Look For:
Nuggets Plan To Keep Rolling:
It shall be a great day of basketball, as the Nuggets look to start the season 2-0. They may have won their first game of the year, but the Nuggets barely managed to squeak by on the road as Anthony Davis put up an impressive 50 points.
Buckling Down Defensively:
In the first game, the Nuggets surrendered 50 points to Anthony Davis. As if that weren’t enough, they allowed Tim Frazier to put up 15 points and 11 assist. Defensively, this is unacceptable, and they must turn it around if they plan to beat a team like the Portland Trail Blazers, who have Damian Lillard (34 points, 9.5 rebounds and 4.5 assist a game) and CJ McCollum (20.5 points, 3 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game).
The Nuggets will be without their defensive anchors in Gary Harris and Darrell Arthur, so players such as Emmanuel Mudiay, Will Barton and Wilson Chandler must step up if they want to win the game.
Nikola Jokic:
One of the biggest bright spots last year was the emergence of Nikola Jokic. In the first game, he couldn’t really get himself going, as he finished 2-5 with only five points and seven rebounds, but he only played 21 minutes. The Nuggets have gone with the Jurkic (Jokic-Nurkic) lineup to start the year, and it seemed to get Jusuf Nurkic going, but not Jokic.
It’s time to see if the “Twin Tower” lineup can do the same for Jokic or whether playing next to Nurkic limits his overall effectiveness.
