We’re officially in the dog days of the NBA season. Christmas is passed, All Star break is still a month away, it’s the grind people. For the Denver Nuggets, that grind has the added challenge of not knowing who’s going to play on any given night and tonight will be more of the same as they are on the road facing the New Orleans Pelicans. Luckily for Denver, the Pelicans are not good. New Orleans thought six years back they had found the face of their franchise in Zion Williamson but due to his consistent health issues, it’s just never panned out. Despite having a number of solid young pieces (Trey Murphy III, Herb Jones, Derik Queen) the Pelicans haven’t had the top end talent, particularly when Zion is hurt, to put together any consistency and this year the wheels seem to have finally come fully off with New Orleans sporting a putrid 9-32 record halfway through the season.
The Basics
Who: Denver Nuggets (26-13) at New Orleans Pelicans (9-32)
When: 6PM MST
Where: We’ve rode this “smoothies are healthy” misinformation all the way to stadium naming rights…center. New Orleans, LA.
How to watch/listen: Altitude TV and Altitude Sports Radio 92.5FM
Rival blog: Pelican Debrief
The Matchup
| Position | Nuggets | Pelicans | Advantage |
| PG | Jamal Murray | Jeremiah Fears | Nuggets |
| SG | Jalen Pickett | Bryce McGowens | Even |
| SF | Peyton Watson | Trey Murphy III | Even |
| PF | Spencer Jones | Zion Williamson | Pelicans |
| C | Aaron Gordon | Derik Queen | Nuggets |
| Bench | Bruce Brown, Zeke Nnaji, Tim Hardaway Jr., Julian Strawther | Karlo Matkovic, Yves Missi, Jordan Poole, Micah Peavy, Jordan Hawkins | Even |
Injury report: Aaron Gordon – probable (hamstring), Spencer Jones – probable (ankle/illness), Jamal Murray – questionable (ankle/illness), Christian Braun – out (ankle), Cameron Johnson – out (knee), Nikola Jokic – out (knee), Jonas Valanciunas – out (calf), Tamar Bates – out (foot), Curtis Jones – out (G-League); Saddiq Bey – questionable (hip), Jose Alvarado – out (oblique), Herbert Jones – out (ankle), Dejounte Murray – out (achilles), Hunter Dickson – out (G-League).
The Three Things
The thing to watch for: how will New Orleans score?
The Pelicans are missing some key parts of their offense with no Jones and no Dejounte Murray and, as I said, they don’t have a ton of top end talent outside of Zion as it is. The most consistent guy other than Williamson for them right now is Trey Murphy and he’s been very solid. The problem for New Orleans is the Nuggets have the ideal players to defend Williamson and Murphy. Aaron Gordon gave Zion the clamps in these teams’ first meeting this season and Zeke Nnaji did it the second game. Murphy has struggled against Denver this season too. Right now the Pelicans offense comes from their “bigs” but their bigs aren’t very big and the Nuggets might be as deep as any team in the league when it comes to versatile, long, strong, defensive forwards.
The thing to remember: Derik Queen traveled
Alright lets just get this out there. As a CSU alum, it is my duty to point out that when Pelicans rookie center Derik Queen hit his buzzer beater back in March to send Maryland to the Sweet Sixteen, he had in fact taken three steps and traveled to get the shot. It was a travesty, an insult to the game and I will not rest until the NCAA vacates Maryland’s win and retroactively awards CSU the National Championship which they clearly would have won had they not been so egregiously robbed!
In all seriousness though (Queen did travel…) one of those bright young pieces on the Pelicans roster is their 13th overall pick from this Summer’s draft. Like all rookies, Derik is having his ups and downs but you can see the skill he brings from the center position. His play in college earned him the nickname “Baby Joker” and Nikola Jokic has praised the young big’s play in the past. Queen is an example of Joker’s effect on the league. Team’s are not only targeting bigs with soft touch and playmaking skills in the draft, they are taking them in the lottery and building offenses around them.
The thing to bet: Parlay Jamal Murray over 8.5 assists and Peyton Watson over 19.5 points (+209)
That’s right, I’m throwing out the same bet again. After the last game I previewed saw Murray sit and thus the bet get canceled, the sportsbooks once again have us back in action on this two leg parlay. Murray is the key play maker with Jokic out and easily surpassed double digit assists in the last two games he played while Watson scoring twenty points is almost automatic. He did only score nineteen in Denver’s last game, however he surpassed twenty in the six games preceding that and the last time he played New Orleans he scored thirty-two. I like it.
