The Denver Nuggets were not dealt a good hand by NBA schedule makers in November and December. Since November 10th, the Nuggets have not had consecutive home games and seven of their nine games have been against teams with winning records. That trend continues tonight as they head back out for a three game road trip (before getting one game at home and then another three game road trip). The roadie starts with the Cleveland Cavaliers who look to be fully complete with their rebuild in the post LeBron James era. Over the past several seasons the Cavs have acquired stars via trade (Donovan Mitchell) and draft (Evan Mobley & Darius Garland) and built a very competitive roster around them. This all has led to this season where Cleveland holds the best record in the NBA and has lost only three games. Denver has their work cut out for them tonight.
The Essentials
Who: Denver Nuggets (11-8) at Cleveland Cavaliers (19-3)
When: 5PM MST
Where: The company that once helped small businesses balance their books but now is one of the largest finance conglomerates in the world…arena. Cleveland, OH.
How to watch/listen: Denver Stiffs does not condone piracy…unless its the romanticized 17th century type. Altitude TV where available, Altitude+, NBA League Pass for those not in the Nuggets market. Altitude Radio 92.5 FM. Claim to be Jameis Winston and say some goofy stuff and they’ll probably let you in.
Rival blog: Fear the Sword
The Matchup
| Position | Nuggets | Cavs | Advantage |
| PG | Jamal Murray | Darius Garland | Cavs |
| SG | Christian Braun | Donovan Mitchell | Cavs |
| SF | Michael Porter Jr. | Isaac Okoro | Nuggets |
| PF | Aaron Gordon | Evan Mobley | Even |
| C | Nikola Jokic | Jarret Allen | Nuggets |
| Bench | Russell Westbrook, Julian Strawther, Peyton Watson, Zeke Nnaji | Georges Niang, Caris Levert, Sam Merrill, Dean Wade | Cavs |
The Three Things
The thing to watch for: Jokic vs the Bigs
The Cavaliers have two premier big men defenders in Jared Allen and Evan Mobley. Allen has more muscle and strength so I expect him to get the matchup with Nikola Jokic but that means Mobley gets to fill the roamer role that sometimes has success against Jokic’s scoring prowess. As one of the top shot blockers in the league, Mobley roaming in the lane is also going to take away a lot of Denver’s cutting options. Nikola will of course have a counter, but I’m curious as to what it is. Does he simply take Allen on one on one and assert his will? Does he try to suck Mobley in as much as possible by drawing double teams and then trust his outside shooters? Or does he just throw a bunch of crazy passes that only he can throw and get the ball to his cutters in great spots regardless of where Mobley is? We’re fixing to find out tonight.
The thing to remember: the Cavs are fresh
Cleveland hasn’t played a back to back since November 20th. They’ve had two road games in the past three weeks. Their November/December schedule has essentially been the antithesis to Denver’s schedule. So you can look at this two ways. On one hand, the soft schedule might indicate that Cleveland’s 19-3 record isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. On the other hand, this is a team that should be well rested and very used to playing within the confines of their own arena. My interpretation of it is more the latter than the former. I expect this to be an extremely difficult game for the Nuggets to win tonight.
The thing to bet: Donovan Mitchell under 26.5 points (-120)
Mitchell has scored twenty-six or less points in four of his last six and seven of his last twelve games. Now, some of that is because the Cavs are blowing the doors off a team and Donovan sits the fourth quarter…but that’s not outside the realm of possibility tonight either. He also is going to draw a fairly tough matchup in Christian Braun and may end up seeing Peyton Watson matched up on him quite a bit tonight as well. Not great odds here but I tend to think it’s a big scoring night on the perimeter for Garland more than Mitchell given the defensive assignments.
