It’s game four of the Denver Nuggets seven game road trip, one that has already seen two players go down for a month with an injury: Nikola Jokic and Jonas Valanciunas. Despite this, the Nugges are coming off a win and look to continue the good vibes against a tough Cleveland Cavaliers team. The Cavs were one of the Eastern Conference elite last year and while their record is not quite as gaudy this time around, they’re still chock full of talent including Donovan Mitchell and reigning Defensive Player of the Year Evan Mobley. All that has added up to the Nuggets being double digit underdogs tonight.
The Basics
Who: Denver Nuggets (23-10) at Cleveland Cavaliers (19-16)
When: 5:30PM MST
Where: We couldn’t make enough money on financial services so we went into the predatory lending industry instead…Arena. Cleveland, OH.
How to watch/listen: Altitude TV, Prime Video. Altitude Radio 92.5FM
Rival Blog: Fear the Sword
The Matchup
| Position | Nuggets | Cavs | Advantage |
| PG | Jamal Murray | Darius Garland | Nuggets |
| SG | Jalen Pickett | Donovan Mitchell | Cavs |
| SF | Peyton Watson | Dean Wade | Even |
| PF | Spencer Jones | Evan Mobley | Cavs |
| C | DaRon Holmes II | Jarrett Allen | Cavs |
| Bench | Bruce Brown, Zeke Nnaji, Tim Hardaway Jr., Julian Strawther | Sam Merrill, Jaylon Tyson, De’Andre Hunter, Craig Porter Jr. | Cavs |
Injury report: Jamal Murray – probable (ankle), Julian Strawther – probable (illness), Nikola Jokic – out (knee), Aaron Gordon – out (hamstring), Christian Braun – out (ankle), Cameron Johnson – out (knee), Jonas Valanciunas – out (calf), Tamar Bates – out (foot); De’Andre Hunter – questionable (illness), Sam Merrill – questionable (ankle), Larry Nance Jr. – out (calf), Max Strus – out (foot), Chris Livingston – out (G-League), Luke Travers – out (G-League)
The Three Things
The thing to watch for: Defending Spida
The Nuggets have found some success in recent years in slowing down Mitchell who’s had his fair share of big games against Denver in his career. The key has been to throw size his way. When Donovan is being harassed by bigger defenders like Christian Braun or Kentavious Caldwell-Pope he’s had some off nights. Because of this I wonder if David Adelman might go with a more defense focused starting group and not start Jalen Pickett. I won’t be surprised if Bruce Brown gets the start and the task of harassing Mitchell. I could also see the Nuggets starting Tim Hardaway Jr. and using him to cover Dean Wade in order to free up Peyton Watson for defending the Cavs star guard.
The thing to remember: Bigs aren’t big enough
The Nuggets are officially out of true centers on their roster. They have a couple 4/5 tweeners in DaRon Holmes II and Zeke Nnaji. Both have good length, but neither has the bulk and strength of the Nuggets typical fives. Nonetheless, those guys will be asked to hold down the center spot for the next month. To make things difficult, their first full game sans Nikola Jokic and Jonas Valanciunas come against Cleveland who sport a dynamic pair of bigs in Jarrett Allen and Mobley. Neither guy is a huge scoring threat, but both can wreak havoc at the rim and on defense. Denver needs their bigs to put some offensive pressure on the floor to keep these guys honest. It’s a good night for both Zeke and DaRon to find their outside shooting stroke and help pull the Cavs lengthy defenders out of the lane.
The thing to bet: Jalen Pickett over 8.5 points (-104)
No big insight on this one other than asking nine points out of Pickett seems like a pretty light ask. Jalen played a season high 28 minutes in Denver’s last game and while he may or may not start again, it seems like Adelman is going to trust him with more responsibility while the Nuggets are getting healthy. Cleveland has also gone away from Lonzo Ball as their bench PG lately, choosing instead to play Craig Porter Jr. who is playing well but also will not take advantage of Pickett’s lack of size as Porter is only 6’1″ himself.
