The injuries continue to mount for the Denver Nuggets while they continue on a season long Eastern road trip. Star center Nikola Jokic is reportedly out for at least four weeks, making him now the fourth starter to go down with injury and leaving Jamal Murray as the last man standing from the original top five in the rotation. The NBA schedule takes pity on no one though, so the Nuggets find themselves in Toronto tonight to face the Raptors. Toronto is one of the more surprising teams early in this season. After back to back dismal years, the Raptors have a winning record this year and are bolstered by Scottie Barnes’ clean bill of health. A lot to overcome for the Nuggets tonight.
The Basics
Who: Denver Nuggets (22-10) at Toronto Raptors (20-14)
When: 5:30PM MST
Where: It’s high fees and bad service but in Canada eh…Arena. Toronto, ON.
How to watch/listen: Altitude 2, Altitude Radio 92.5 FM
Rival Blog: Raptors Republic
The Matchup
| Position | Nuggets | Raptors | Advantage |
| PG | Jamal Murray | Immanuel Quickley | Nuggets |
| SG | Tim Hardaway Jr. | Ochai Agbaji | Nuggets |
| SF | Peyton Watson | Scottie Barnes | Raptors |
| PF | Spencer Jones | Brandon Ingram | Raptors |
| C | Jonas Valanciunas | Sandro Mamukelashvili | Even |
| Bench | Bruce Brown, Zeke Nnaji, Jalen Pickett, Julian Strawther, DaRon Holmes II | Collin Murray-Boyles, Jamal Shead, Ja’Kobe Walter, Gradey Dick | Even |
Injury Report: Julian Strawther – probable (illness), Nikola Jokic – out (knee), Aaron Gordon – out (hamstring), Christian Braun – out (ankle), Cameron Johnson – out (knee), Tamar Bates – out (foot); Jakob Poetl – out (back), Johnathan Mogbo – out (G-League), Alijah Martin – out (G-League), A.J. Lawson – out (G-League), Chucky Hepburn – out (G-League).
The Three Things
The thing to watch for: Who steps up on offense?
Obviously Murray now becomes Denver’s number one scoring option but it’s not immediately clear who will be the second and third options. I imagine Tim Hardaway Jr. becomes one of those guys. He’s had a great start to the year and shooting is his number one skill. From there though it gets dicey. Do you have Peyton Watson take on more of a scorer’s role given he’s had a solid stint with the starters? Do you try to get some throwback years from Jonas Valanciunas and play bully ball in the post? Are you hoping a guy off the bench like Bruce Brown or Julian Strawther can give you 20+ points? The Nuggets are going to have to figure out a completely different way to play offense for the next month and it’ll be fascinating to see what David Adelman comes out of the gate with.
The thing to remember: Toronto is lacking for size
The Raptors aren’t the worst team to have to face in the immediate aftermath of Jokic’s injury. With Jakob Poetl sidelined they’ve essentially been limited to Sandro Mamukelashvili (noted Nuggets killer) as their only big man and he’s only listed at 6’9″. They’ve got so desperate for length that they recently signed Mo Bamba out of the G-League but he’s only seen spot minutes thus far. Denver doesn’t have a ton of center depth. After Valanciunas you’ve got Zeke Nnaji and DaRon Holmes II but both of those guys are more suited size wise to play the four rather than the five. Tonight though they should be just fine, even if Bamba, who weighs just 231 lbs, sees real minutes.
The thing to bet: Tim Hardaway Jr. over 15.5 points (-112)
Like I said, I expect THJ to become the number two option until some starters get back into the lineup. I’m guessing he takes near 20 shots tonight so even with low efficiency I think the volume will get him to the over on points regardless. A little more spicy and potentially lucrative bet is to take the over on his threes, which is 3.5 and at +126 odds.
