It’s a busy holiday week for the Denver Nuggets. Fresh off an overtime victory last night, the team hopped on a plane back to Denver to face the Phoenix Suns tonight. Next, the Nuggets will head down to Phoenix to take on the Suns in their arena as the nightcap to the Christmas day slate before finishing out the week with another back to back at home. The second game of the B2B sandwiched between a long road trip and a Christmas day game very well may be the most difficult to win and the opponent will make it no easier. Now in year two of the Devin Booker, Bradley Beal, Kevin Durant core, Phoenix is still trying to find some consistency. At 14-13 they haven’t got off to the start they want, yet this team still remains one of the most dangerous in the association with their scoring ability. The Nuggets will need a focused effort (something that was lacking often on their road trip) to come out of tonight with a W.
The Essentials
Who: Denver Nuggets (15-11) vs Phoenix Suns (14-13)
When: 8:00PM MST
Where: The Can. Denver, CO.
How to watch/listen: Denver Stiffs does not condone piracy….unless it’s the romanticized 17th century type. Altitude TV where available, NBA League pass for those not in the Nuggets market, Altitude+, 92.5FM Altitude Radio. Get some touch of gray just for men, small stilts, a nice blazer and talk about how much the ball is popping and you’re sure to be mistaken for Adam Mares and get whisked right away to the Altitude Studio (congrats Adam!).
Rival blog: Bright Side of the Sun
The Matchup
| Position | Nuggets | Suns | Advantage |
| PG | Jamal Murray | Tyus Jones | Nuggets |
| SG | Christian Braun | Bradley Beal | Even |
| SF | Michael Porter Jr. | Royce O’Neal | Nuggets |
| PF | Aaron Gordon | Kevin Durant | Suns |
| C | Nikola Jokic | Jusuf Nurkic | Nuggets |
| Bench | Russell Westbrook, Julian Strawther, Peyton Watson, DeAndre Jordan | Mason Plumlee, Monte Morris, Ryan Dunn, Josh Okogie | Even |
Injury report*: Dario Saric – questionable (ankle), Vlatko Cancar – out (knee), DaRon Holmes II – out (achilles); Grayson Allen – out (concussion), Bol Bol – out (knee), Devin Booker – out (groin), Collin Gillespie – out (G-League), TyTy Washington Jr. – out (G-League). *The Nuggets injury report was not published at time of writing
The Three Things
The thing to watch for: Aaron Gordon vs Kevin Durant
Devin Booker is out and Bradley Beal frankly hasn’t been a contributing factor to Phoenix winning lately. Durant remains the far and away biggest threat on Phoenix. While he was in Brooklyn when Denver acquired Aaron Gordon, KD is the exact type of player the Nuggets got Gordon for: an elite perimeter scorer with skill and size to overpower (or just shoot over) your typical wings. The recipe to beat the Suns isn’t necessarily stop Durant, (the Pistons beat Phoenix the other night when KD scored 43) but it certainly goes a long way if you’re also playing quality basketball. The Nuggets need AG to stick to Durant tonight and force him to give up the ball. If they can do that then their chances of winning will be very high.
The thing to remember: why is James Jones so obsessed with us?
Jusuf Nurkic, Mason Plumlee, Monte Morris, Colin Gillespie, Bol Bol…anyone seeing a theme here? Suns GM James Jones seems to be all in on former Nuggets and frankly James, we’re just not that into you. Obviously I’m being tongue in cheek here but I do think it’s funny how many reunions we’ll get tonight. Will Nikola Jokic look to eviscerate his former practice mates in Nurkic and Plumlee? Will there be some intensity between Jamal Murray and Morris? Sadly no Bol Bol tonight as he is dealing with an injury and Gillespie is in the G-League but still plenty of connections between the two rosters.
The thing to bet: Jamal Murray over 20.5 points (-110)
Jamal is playing better and looking more and more like his regular self but the betting public hasn’t quite caught up. Last week I was taking Murray threes as our TTB and that cashed with relative ease, now I’m staring at -110 for Jamal scoring just 21 points and it feels like Christmas came early. Murray has scored 20 or more in four straight games and I know what you’re thinking, coming off an OT B2B with travel there’s no way Jamal has another big night. Well, last time that situation happened was in October when the Nuggets beat the Toronto Raptors in OT only to have to play the Brooklyn Nets in Brooklyn the next night…Jamal scored 24 points against the Nets.
