The Basics
Who: Denver Nuggets (43-28) vs Portland Trail Blazers (35-36)
When: 3PM MDT
Where: The Can. Devner, CO.
How to watch/listen: Altitude TV, NBATV, Altitude Radio 92.5FM
Rival blog: Blazer’s Edge
The Matchup
| Position | Nuggets | Blazers | Advantage |
| PG | Jamal Murray | Jrue Holiday | Nuggets |
| SG | Christian Braun | Toumani Camara | Even |
| SF | Cameron Johnson | Jerami Grant | Even |
| PF | Aaron Gordon | Deni Avdija | Even |
| C | Nikola Jokic | Donovan Clingan | Nuggets |
| Bench | Bruce Brown, Tim Hardaway Jr., Jonas Valanciunas, Spencer Jones, Peyton Watson | Kris Murray, Robert Williams III, Matisse Thybulle, Scoot Henderson, Sidy Cissoko | Even |
Injury report: Peyton Watson – questionable (hamstring), DaRon Holmes II – out (G-League), Curtis Jones – out (G-League), KJ Simpson – out (G-League); Jerami Grant – questionable (foot), Vit Krejci – questionable (calf), Damian Lillard – out (achilles), Shaedon Sharpe – out (fibula), Yang Hensen – out (G-League), Chris Youngblood – out (G-League), Caleb Love – out (G-League).
The Three Things
The thing to watch for: Peyton Watson’s return
Peyton Watson will make his return to the court today after being out six weeks with a strained hamstring. Right before he got hurt Peyton was blossoming. He found himself thrust into a primary scorers role with all the injuries the Nuggets had and he showed he was capable of being a go to scorer for Denver. ON top of that, his defense was reaching elite levels with even the best scorers looking to avoid him and hunting a switch anytime they found themselves staring PWat opposite them on the court. Watson has the makings of an elite talent and though he’s now in his fourth season he is still just 23 years old. If he can return to the level he was playing before the injury the Nuggets are going to have another scary piece coming off their bench that could likely end up closing more games than he doesn’t come hte playoffs.
The thing to remember: Portland is playing for the playoffs
The Blazers post Damian Lillard rebuild (even though they re-signed Damian Lillard) has largely to this point been about acquiring bad contracts in exchange for draft picks and waiting those contracts out or using them to acquire other bad contracts. It’s a sound rebuild strategy but the funny thing about Portland is they’ve acquired just enough talent in the form of overpaid veterans who are past their primes but still good to make the Blazers a fringe playoff team. Right now they are firmly headed to the play-in tournament with no hope of tanking their way out of it. Ninth place Portland is eight and a half games up on the eleventh place New Orleans Pelicans. This means there’s really nothing else do except make a go of it with Jrue Holiday, Jerami Grant and Portland’s one legitimate star Deni Avdija. Expect them to play Denver tough today as they are in a dead tie with the eighth seeded Los Angeles Clippers.
The thing to bet: Over 241.5
I’m a big believer in day games being defensive slop fests. Denver’s defense has been pretty suspect against everyone who hasn’t been the walking wounded Philadelphia 76ers. Portland’s also got the scoring to get t0 120 points against suspect defenses.
