Dear Peacock, some of us have to sleep…the broadcasting giant cares not as they plan to subject us to 9PM roundball rock this evening with the Denver Nuggets in the late-night slot for their game against the Phoenix Suns. It’s a crucial game for the Nuggets and somewhat for the Suns, with both teams jockeying (kind of) for playoff position. On the Nuggets side, they hope to gain homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs by finishing no worse than the fourth seed. The Suns meanwhile look destined for the 7th seed, but a late season slip up by any of the 4-6 seeds could give Phoenix an opportunity to avoid the play-in tournament altogether.
The Basics
Who: Denver Nuggets (44-28) at Phoenix Suns (40-32)
When: 9PM MDT
Where: Annual Bank Name Arena. Phoenix, AZ.
How to watch/listen: NBC & Peacock. Altitude Sports & Altitude Radio 92.5FM.
Rival blog: Bright Side of the Sun
The Matchup
| Position | Nuggets | Suns | Advantage |
| PG | Jamal Murray | Collin Gillespie | Nuggets |
| SG | Christian Braun | Devin Booker | Suns |
| SF | Cameron Johnson | Jalen Green | Even |
| PF | Aaron Gordon | Royce O’Neal | Nuggets |
| C | Nikola Jokic | Oso Ighodaro | Nuggets |
| Bench | Bruce Brown, Tim Hardaway Jr., Spencer Jones, Julian Strawther | Ryan Dunn, Rasheer Fleming, Khaman Maluach, Jamaree Bouyea | Nuggets |
Injury report: Peyton Watson – out (hamstring); Royce O’Neal – probable (knee), Grayson Allen – questionable (knee), Dillon Brooks – out (hand), Haywood Highsmith – out (knee), Amir Coffey – out (ankle), Mark Williams – out (foot).
The Three Things
The thing to watch for: Can small ball feast?
David Adelman is full on in his small ball era. Despite having Jonas Valanciunas, DA has gone away from playing a traditional center behind Nikola Jokic. On one hand, this strategy makes Denver incredibly versatile on defense, particularly at the perimeter, with their ability to switch one through five and probably have at least three very strong perimeter defenders on the court at all times. On the other hand, Robert Williams III almost singlehandedly kept the Portland Trail Blazers in the game on Sunday while Spencer Jones attempted (poorly) to box him out. The give is always going to be a less than outstanding big will have the opportunity to feast inside against Denver’s all switch group. The Suns have been giving 19-year-old rookie Khaman Maluach more burn lately. The 7’1″ center is averaging 14.3 minutes a game in March. Will Adelman stay steadfast to his small lineup or will he decide that asking Jones and the other bench players outside of Big Val to handle that kind of length is too much? (Because lord knows he ain’t playing Zeke Nnaji)
The thing to remember: 9PM tips are an abomination
I don’t care how much nostalgia roundball rock drums up…these 9pm tips have got to go. Who the hell came up with this idea in the first place? Who is staying up until after 1AM on the east coast to finish this game? No one, that’s who. Someone over at NBC should be drawn and quartered for this decision. 9PM tip on a Tuesday…
The thing to bet: Jokic over 10.5 Assists (-106)
As much belief as I want to put in Oso Ighodaro or even Maluach and their ability to defend Nikola one on one…I don’t think that belief is owned by even the most ardent of Suns faithful. I firmly expect doubles to come often at Nikola tonight and he will as usual find the open man. That tracks well to hit the over on his assists, so long as his teammates are knocking down their shots, and its essentially even money on the odds.
