Right now, the Nuggets hold the NBA’s best home court record at 10-1.
If the team hopes to have any spot at securing home court in the playoffs, they must continue to play at that pace at home. With 12 of 15 games in the month of January occurring in the Pepsi Center, the Nuggets are going to get a chance to reel off a streak of wins that should vault them into or very close to the top four seeds in the West by February. The Nuggets got off to a great start by dominating the Clippers, and will need to continue their hot home play against some tough competition coming up soon:
Saturday, January 5th – vs. Utah Jazz – The Nuggets can take a 2-1 series lead against the plucky Utah Jazz with a victory. With one more contest left to play in April, having another potential tiebreaker can only help the Nuggets as they head towards the playoffs.
Sunday, January 13th – vs. Golden State – The “dubs” best start in years has netted them a 4 seed already. Against the deadly 3 point shot of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, the Nuggets will need to play solid perimeter defense to secure this one.
Sunday, January 20th – vs. Oklahoma City – The bad boys of the Northwestern Conference come to town. The Nuggets will either be looking for revenge from the game at OKC just 4 days prior, or looking to put together a 2 game streak against the Thunder. With Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Kevin Martin giving the Thunder one of the best records in the NBA, this one will be a tall order.
Daily Links
Ty Lawson received MRI on Wednesday for aching Achilles – Uh oh. If Ty's been hurting for a week (or more) and his Achilles "tightens up when he jumps", that is a very bad sign. Despite his struggles to date, Ty is still a critical part of this team, and if his injury is more severe than initially thought, the Nuggets could be in deep trouble.
UPDATE: As noted yesterday in Nate Timmons' article, it appears that Ty Lawson's MRI came back clean and he won't miss an extended amount of time. Whew!
Kobe Bryant on Lakers: "We're old as shit" – Or maybe it's just you, Kobe.
Stan Van Gundy: PG Wall not good enough to build around – SVG feels that the flaw in the wizards is largely due to the erratic play and poor decision making of the Wizards‘ young PG. Nene’s basketball diaspora continues apace.
***
