The Denver Nuggets first game didn’t go quite how they wanted. Aaron Gordon scored fifty, Nikola Jokic got a triple double, Jamal Murray had a 20-10 game…and the Nuggets lost. They get their second chance at their first victory tonight, this time facing the Phoenix Suns. The Suns find themselves at a crossroads this season. After coming up short in the Finsls five seasons ago, the Suns went all-in trying to build a super team around Devin Booker by acquiring Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal. That experiment ultimately can no longer be called anything other than a failure after Phoenix failed to make the post season last year. Now Durant plays in Houston, Beal plays in Los Angeles and the Suns, who had to pay to get off those contracts and didn’t get a lot in return for either player, are caught in a pseudo rebuild right in the middle of Booker’s prime.
The Basics
Who: Denver Nuggets (0-1) vs Phoenix Suns (1-1)
When: 7:00PM MDT
Where: The Can. Denver, CO.
How to watch/listen: Altitude TV, Altitude Radio 92.5 FM. Show up in an FBI jacket and they probably don’t ask to much questions when you walk in…but you might get punched in the ribs by a guy wearing a Chauncey Billups jersey.
Rival blog: Bright Side of the Sun
The Matchup
| Position | Nuggets | Suns | Advantage |
| PG | Jamal Murray | Devin Booker | Suns |
| SG | Christian Braun | Grayson Allen | Nuggets |
| SF | Cam Johnson | Dillon Brooks | Nuggets |
| PF | Aaron Gordon | Ryan Dunn | Nuggets |
| C | Nikola Jokic | Oso Ighodaro | Nuggets |
| Bench | Bruce Brown, Tim Hardaway Jr., Jonas Valanciunas, Peyton Watson, Spencer Jones | Royce O’Neal, Nigel Hayes-Davis, Colin Gillespie, Mark Williams | Nuggets |
Injury Report*: Jalen Green – out (hamstring). *The official injury report was not posted at time of writing.
The Three Things
The thing to watch: Bounce back night shooting from Nikola
Jokic ended up with a triple double in the opener, but he also scored twenty-one points on twenty-three shots, not exactly the efficiency we’re used to from the big man. Too often he seemed content to launch shots from above the break instead of asserting his will down low. On Thursday Nikola faced one of the top defenders of all time in Draymond Green, tonight he gets Oso Ighodaro. Listen, nothing against Mr. Ighodaro, but the second year second round pick has started a whopping 8 games in his NBA career and tonight he gets the best player on earth. I expect Nikola to take advantage of this matchup and look to abuse to fifty pound lighter Ighodaro in the paint early and often.
The thing to remember: Colin Gillespie found a home in Phoenix
Shout out to former Nuggets two-way player Colin Gillespie. He entered the league with the Nuggets as an undrafted free agent and almost immediately went down with a broken leg. That put his development on hold and the Nuggets moved on in the Summer of 2024. From that time Gillespie has played in Phoenix. He first started just like he did in Denver, as a two-way end of the bench, break glass only in emergency kind of guy. However, as the season went on last year he found more and more minutes and ultimately became a rotation regular (and got several starts) by the end of the season. Now he’s back again, this time on a fully guaranteed NBA contract and his spot in the rotation firmly secured as the backup point guard off the bench. Additionally, with Phoenix not playing a traditional point guard in their starting line up, I won’t be surprised if Gillespie finds his way into the starting group once again this season. Super happy for the former Nugget and NBA champion, awesome that he found himself a home in the league.
The thing to bet: Jamal Murray over 30 Pts+Asts+Rebs (-108)
Murray backed up his strong preseason with an equally as strong opening night. It looks like he’s sick of all the talk about not being in shape to start the season or getting off to a slow start and he’s come out with his hair on fire this year. Phoenix has some solid wing defenders, and Murray is likely to be harassed by Grayson Allen and Dillon Brooks all game, but Jamal’s current “already in postseason” form is just too good. I think he gets over twenty points pretty easily and with the way his playmaking has been to start the year it feels like he could secure zero rebounds and still hit the over on this prop bet.
