The preseason rolls on tonight with the Denver Nuggets back in action, this time against the Toronto Raptors. Game one of the preseason didn’t go exactly how the Nuggets wanted. They fell behind almost from the jump against the Minnesota Timberwolves and never recovered. More concerning perhaps was there were few bright spots for the team. Nikola Jokic was Nikola Jokic and Aaron Gordon had a nice night scoring but the offense looked clunky. The start of the game left Denver searching for points from anywhere other than the free throw line and the lead quickly ballooned. Much ballyhooed newcomer Cam Johnson was also underwhelming. Still, it’s preseason game number one so no one is too concerned. On to the next!
The Basics
Who: Denver Nuggets (0-1) vs Toronto Raptors (0-0)
When: 8PM MDT
Where: Rogers Arena. Vancouver, BC.
How to watch/listen: NBA League Pass. Show up to the arena rocking a vintage Bryant “Big Country” Reeves jersey and they probably let you in with nothing more than a high five.
Rival Blog: Raptors HQ
The Three Things
The thing to watch for: Starters Minutes
Two ways you can approach this game from a rotation standpoint. 1) Understand you have 6 days off so let this game serve as a first trial of more or less running your regular rotation with your starters resting in the fourth and then getting the week to recover. 2) Understand you have 6 days off so don’t worry about installing anything too major tonight because you’re still more than a week away from the start of the regular season. I expect Denver will go the latter, opting to bench multiple starters tonight and letting the deeeeeeep bench getting significant minutes. I could be wrong, but at any rate I’m hoping Johnson gets some run. Integrating to the Nuggets system is not simple and he can use as much run as he can get, though if Nikola sits it’s a little bit less useful.
The thing to remember: the score matters little, the individual performances matter more
Yes, we’d love to see the Nuggets come out like a well-oiled machine tonight and score at will in the form of high-level play. That’s just not how preseason goes though. Throw out the score, it really doesn’t matter (like, literally, it does not count). Pay attention to the individuals and look at the game from the scope of gauging individual growth. So, for example, I could care less about the score from last game and that the Nuggets got “blown out”. I am excited about Peyton Watson looking like a more polished player, I love how Jonas Valanciunas was a benefit to the offense when he subbed in for Nikola. Johnson still needs more time, Bruce Brown’s offense was a bit suspect. It’s these individual performances I will be watching tonight to start identifying positive, and worrisome, trends that will affect overall performance come regular season.
The thing to bet: who knows
Last game I said bet the under because you’re a degenerate gambler with a problem but sure, preseason games are clunky and so less points should be a thing. The over hit. My run of preseason betting guru is over. 1-800-Gambler is the hotline I would call for your betting tips tonight if you are bound and determined to gamble on this game.
