Nuggets have shot to win out in November
The Denver Nuggets have played their way to an 8-3 start to open up the season and currently hold a slight advantage in the Northwest Division over the surging Portland Trailblazers via the Nuggets head-to-head win over the Blazers the second game of the season. The Nuggets now face a cupcake schedule to finish out November and it will be key for them to take advantage of playing lesser competition.
To finish the month, the Nuggets will play the Clippers, Nets, Knicks, Bulls and Timberwolves twice. Those four squads combine for just a 13-45 record this season with only the Bulls having a record above .500 at 6-4. As one of the top teams in the league, the Nuggets should be able to easily handle this schedule with four of the six games being played on their home court of the Pepsi Center. This includes the only challenge in the Bulls, who will be looking to avenge their loss to the Nuggets a week ago when Bulls center Brad Miller barely missed beating the buzzer on what would have been a game winning shot.
This will be a key stretch for the Nuggets who started off shaky in November when they dropped 3 of 4 on the road to the Heat, Hawks and Bucks. They will now have the chance to look past those defeats and end November on a high note and establish themselves as the true power in their division.
The Trailblazers have been playing exceptional basketball, posting a 9-4 record. They also play a similarly weak schedule to close out the month but they do face a key divisional road game against the Utah Jazz. However, the Blazers have dropped two games in a row at home and it will be important for the Nuggets to continue to capitalize on any Blazers stumbles. The Blazers are set to play six times in the next ten days as the Nuggets have received some of their first valuable rest of the year playing just three times in a week after a long east coast road trip. The Blazers will also most likely be playing inspired basketball all season as they will be playing for their owner, Paul Allen, who is battling non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
If the Nuggets play as they are capable they should be able to win out the rest of the month and hopefully increase their division lead by a game or two. Every game will matter at the end of the regular season with the Western Conference being stacked with talent as always. The surprising Phoenix Suns currently hold the conference’s best record at 10-2 and it will be important for the Nuggets to keep pace to guarantee themselves another top two seed to help their chances and match-ups in the playoffs.
The Nuggets are playing well right now and the return of Earl “J.R.” Smith has rejuvenated their offense and reinstated the Nuggets dominant offensive mentality. Smith is also playing intense defense and is also working to motivate his team mates on that end of the floor. A good note for the Nuggets is that an MRI on Chris “Birdman” Andersen’s knee revealed no damage other than his tendinitis and he is not expected to miss any time. The Nuggets will continue to need their big men to stay healthy to maintain their presence in the paint and clean up rebounds. The Nuggets rank just 17th in the league in total rebounding and they will need to increase their activity and work on boxing out if they want to become a championship caliber team.
The Nuggets will look to turn that around tomorrow in Los Angeles against the Clippers. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN and tip-off is at 8:30 pm MDT.
This stretch of game will be especially important before the Nuggets face some big tests early on in December. The Nuggets will open up December and try and avenge their loss against the Heat before facing the fellow Western Conference contender San Antonio Spurs the same week.
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