Once again the Nuggets will have a chance to get to .500 on the road today in Orlando. The question, even if the Nuggets get even on the road how long will it last?
The particulars …
Records:
Denver: 48-25 (30-6 at home, 18-19 on the road)
Orlando: 51-22 (29-7 at home, 22-15 on the road)
Denver current streak: Won 1. They are 6-4 in their last 10 games.
Orlando current streak: Won 1. They are 8-2 in their last 10 games.
Injuries:
Denver: Kenyon Martin (left knee tendinitis) and Renaldo Balkman (mid-back strain) are both out tonight. Malik Allen is questionable with a left groin injury suffered in Toronto.
Orlando: Mickael Pietrus (sprained left ankle) is day to day.Opposition’s Take: Orlando Pinstriped Post
Not a long preview today since tipoff is just about 2 1/2 hours away in Orlando …
All season long the Denver Nuggets have battled road woes. The Nuggets have hovered just under .500 all season long and today they have yet another shot to get even on the road. Even if the Nuggets get to .500 today … tomorrow they will have another opportunity to slip up or to move forward on the road with a very important game in Dallas. The winner tomorrow in Dallas will have the upper hand in the battle for the second seed in the Western Conference, but that is tomorrow’s fight.
Today the Nuggets have to figure out a way to win in a place they have not had much success historically. Denver did pull off a rare win in Orlando last season (82-73) and that was their first win there since 1992.
Thanks to Carmelo Anthony‘s last second heroics in Toronto, Denver is not riding a four-game losing streak heading into today’s game. Things haven’t exactly been smooth sailing for the Nuggets lately and with just nine games left in the regular season, the Nuggets need to find a way to get in a groove and it’d be a gift from above if they could somehow find some rest between now and the time the playoffs start … but I just don’t see the latter happening.
View you can use:
- In the month of March Chauncey Billups is averaging 35.2 minutes per game … on the season he’s averaging just over 34 minutes per game. The knock on Billups has been that he wears down as the season drags along. We saw last season by the Lakers series that the point guard was fatigued … could playing Billups so much and not utilizing Ty Lawson come back to haunt the Nuggets? Time will tell.
ntimmons73@yahoo.com
Twitter: Nate_Timmons
Photo courtesy of AP Photos
