(Denver-CO) With a pigeon feather in their cap, the Denver Nuggets will host the Toronto Raptors tonight with the chance to improve to 4-0 at home for the first time since the 1989-90 campaign at McNichols Arena. Why a pigeon feather? Well, let’s just say that beating the Lakers, even in decisive fashion, in November isn’t something most people remember next Spring.
Trust me, head over to Doc’s Sports for a complete
NBA Schedule. If you click on any team you will see that they update the scores on their schedule page after each game. Very few "schedule" pages do this and it gives you a nice look back at the season for each team.
With the Raptors averaging an almost dead even 106.9 ppg, the Nuggets will once again need to focus on defense first to be successful. Now, I don’t want to belabor an easy point to understand, but so much for the Nuggets is predicated on their defensive effort. When they control the defensive boards, their fast break offensive gets going. When they create turnovers it leads to momentum swinging shifts (especially at the Pepsi Center). When they choose not to just allow easy points in the paint by playing with great defensive rotations it gives the Nuggets more of an opportunity to blow games wide open with their potent offense; which if you haven’t noticed has a tendency to become stagnant in surprisingly high correlation to when defensively does the same.
Capice?
One of the players Denver is going to have to neutralize is Jose Calderon. Despite an early season slump of sorts, you had better believe Calderon is one of the best point guards in the Eastern Conference, and one of the better ones in the league today. He’s lightening quick, 6’3”, and shoots a great percentage by getting to the rim. Last season, Calderon averaged a career-high 8.9 apg with ridiculous nights posting 19, 16,and 15 assists. However, so far this season, Jose hasn’t been able to find that groove with his best game facilitating the rock coming on opening night when he handed out eleven dimes, but since that game hasn’t reached the double digit mark. But, what he has done well so far this season is score. Calderon has picked up right where he left last season’s career-high of 12.8 ppg and is averaging 12.5 ppg through ten games.
The next area the Nuggets have to do another great job in is defending players of decent size. The Raptors are anchored by Chris Bosh and Andrea Bargnani and both men do their damage offensively with finesse. At seven feet, Bargnani is an oddity. He shoots 45% from downtown and 93% (that’s not a typo) from the free-throw line. And by doing so, he extends the defense from its comfort zone and leaves Chris Bosh a lot of room to operate inside.
Defensively, I think the Nuggets are going to be ok against Bargnani (as long as he doesn’t hit, say, a half a dozen three’s) because Kenyon Martin’s physical play will take Bargnani out of his game. The real match-up to keep an eye on is inside between Nene and Chris Bosh. Both men are little undersized for the positions they play, but both men flourish with foot speed. Bosh is leading the Raptors in scoring and rebounding at 27.7 ppg and 11.6 rpg, respectively. I think this one-on-one play basically boils down to who gets in foul trouble first. Nene did a nice job of not picking up ticky-tack fouls against Andrew Bynum and I think his strength is going to give Bosh fits in close to the rim. On the hand though, if Bosh has his midrange jumper game popping off Nene is going to have to step out. And when that happens Bosh is going to be able to put the ball on the floor and probably tag Nene with a couple whistles.
All that aside…
The Nuggets have the better supporting cast and Carmelo. It’s also a game the Nuggets should win at home and the Trailblazers have reappeared in the rearview mirror with a record of 8-4. I know, it’s early, right? Well, it’s never too early when the Division is concerned.
Go Nuggets!
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