It’s unnecessary and lazy to call this matchup with the Houston Rockets a must-win game, but it kinda is for the psyche of this year’s Denver Nugget team.
Tonight, (Wednesday, Nov 20th) came at a perfect time and serves as a litmus test for the Nuggets on their quest to western conference supremacy. This game in particular is a big eye-test locally and nationally for the Nuggets to show they are serious about contending for a championship this season.
Winning this game may give Denver enough momentum to go on a big run as December approaches. The schedule gets slightly tougher in December, the Nuggets will go on a east-coast road trip that feature the Boston Celtics, Brooklyn Nets and Philadelphia 76ers. Denver will also play their first two games of the season against the Los Angeles Lakers, who currently have the best record in the NBA at 12-2. Zion Williamson could make his NBA debut against Denver in the Christmas day showdown as well.
The Nuggets have the best road record in the NBA at 5-1 but need to take care of home-court winning games in Denver. This is especially important against western conference opponents.
Losing another game at home would be disappointing, but not the end of the world. Houston is a great team that actually learned how to play some defense and have been a nightmare for Denver in the past.
It’s important the Nuggets shake that stigma of not matching-up well with teams like Houston and Utah. Tonight is deeper then just game #14 on the schedule, it’s a early season Super-Bowl for the Nuggets. This is also a big swing-game in the western conference, this game could determine seeding in April come playoff time when you factor in tie-breakers and conference standings.
Houston is coming to Denver with a eight-game win streak and a red-hot James Harden.
James Harden is on pace to have one of the best scoring seasons of all-time.
Currently, James Harden is averaging 39.2 points per game which would be 3rd all time & the highest since Wilt Chamberlain over 50 years ago. Harden continues to use his craftiness, ability to get to the free throw line and his overall offensive repertoire to toy with NBA defenses. James Harden also averages 8 assists a game which is tremdously higher than Nikola Jokic so far this season.
Traditionally, the Nuggets have struggled to compete with Houston, especially defending their pick-and-roll with James Harden and Clint Capela. Capela missed the only game Denver won against Houston last season and is always a tough matchup defensively for Nikola Jokic. Nikola Jokic always has the highest IQ on the court but his slow feet and big body remain a weakness in high pick-and-roll situations. The big man just isn’t quick or shifty enough to defend quicker guys than him, whether that’s a guard, forward or big.
Add Russell Westbrook to the picture and now you have a explosive, scary offensive team to deal with.
If Houston’s role players hit their 3-point shots, it’ll be tough for Denver to focus on Harden individually, not to mention playing help-side defense against the Clint Capela roll to the basket. It’s not the best match-up for Denver but if they play with extra effort defensively and their style on offense, they should have no problem winning this game at home backed by the Pepsi Center crowd.
Denver has already lost two games at home this season, they lost seven games at home all of last year.
The Nuggets are coming off a dominating road-win against the Memphis Grizzlies Sunday evening (Nov 17). The Nuggets actually looked like the Nuggets of last year for only the 2nd time this season.
November 5th, against the Miami Heat was the only other game this season the Nuggets played exceptional.
Even with a 9-3 record and a top-3 seed in the western conference, Denver has played more of a negative brand of their style of basketball than positive. The Nuggets haven’t been sloppy with the basketball as one of the least turnover prone teams in the association. What continues to plague them is going stretches of basketball not being able to hit a shot like what happened during game-7 of the conference semi-finals last season.
You can visually see the frustration from coach Michael Malone throughout this early season, including calling several timeouts out of pure anger. Whether it’s attention to detail, effort on defense or being frustrated with Michael Porter Jr. making rookie mistakes, Malone has had quite the emotional roller-coaster 12 games into the season. Following a 122-107 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans on November 1st, coach Malone said he was embarrassed and challenged his team to show they care and not be a “talk team”.
It’s encouraging to see the Nuggets still winning games with a 9-3 record.
The Nuggets haven’t necessarily played good basketball for the most-part this season. A win against Houston would certainly give the players and fans confidence and more optimism going forward on a quest for a championship.
#FreeGame 