The Denver Nuggets are coming off of perhaps their biggest win of the season after knocking off the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday. Tonight, they’ll get the hottest team in the Western Conference, the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Wolves have won five in a row and are making a push in the stretch run to get out of the play-in and earn a playoff birth outright. They’re led by Anthony Edwards who’s added a 40% three point shot to his arsenal this season and is scoring at an all time high. It’s the third straight game battling a tough division rival for Denver.
The Essentials
Who: Denver Nuggets (42-23) vs Minnesota Timberwolves (37-29)
When: 8PM MDT
Where: The Can. Denver, CO.
How to watch/listen: Piracy policy: Streams bad, Blackbeard good. Altitude TV, Altitude+, ESPN, NBA League Pass for those not in the Nuggets market. Walk up to security, start talking about Baltimore, The Wire and bad trade proposals and security will just assume you’re Tim Connelly.
Rival blog: Canis Hoopus
The Matchup
| Position | Nuggets | Wolves | Advantage |
| PG | Jamal Murray | Mike Conley | Nuggets |
| SG | Russell Westbrook | Anthony Edwards | Wolves |
| SF | Christian Braun | Jaden McDaniels | Even |
| PF | Michael Porter Jr. | Julius Randle | Even |
| C | Nikola Jokic | Rudy Gobert | Nuggets |
| Bench | Peyton Watson, Zeke Nnaji, Jalen Pickett, DeAndre Jordan | Naz Reid, Donte DiVincenzo, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Jaylen Clark | Wolves |
Injury report: Jamal Murray – probable (ankle), Nikola Jokic – probable (elbow & ankle), Aaron Gordon – doubtful (calf), Julian Strawther – out (knee), DaRon Holmes II – out (achilles); Rudy Gobert – questionable (back), Jesse Edwards – out(G-League), Leonard Miller – out (G-League), Tristen Newton – out (G-League).
The Three Things
The thing to watch for: Handling Julius Randle
The last time these two teams played the Nuggets were similarly without Aaron Gordon like they expect to be tonight. Randle had a big impact in that game before cooling off down the stretch. In the previous contest Michael Malone started Russell Westbrook and that’s also been his approach in Gordon’s most recent absence. However, Minnesota is a team where it behooves coach to take a long look at going a different direction with that starting group. With Russ in that group it slides Michael Porter Jr. to power forward where he doesn’t have the strength or defensive chops to stay with Randle. Certainly no guarantee that Zeke Nnaji can do that either but you gain a lot of strength with him over MPJ at the power forward spot and starting him over Russ will help against a bigger team like Minnesota. I think that can go a long way to victory.
The thing to remember: Still looking for that get back
I hope the Nuggets haven’t forgotten this was the team trying to do trick dunks at the end of game seven last year. Since then, Denver blew a golden opportunity to steal a game in Minnesota and then got blownout in the second matchup. It’s easy to be a victim of the moment and think the Wolves have Denver’s number. It’s simply not true though. The Nuggets have shown time and again they can beat this roster and no, trading Karl-Anthony Towns for Randle and Donte Divincenzo didn’t change that. Thus far this season the only thing that’s happened is the Wolves have defended their homecourt. Time for Denver to do the same and also get a little payback for the recent losses to Minnesota.
The thing to bet: Christian Braun over 1.5 threes (+175)
You’re currently getting +175 odds on Braun hitting two threes. In case you weren’t counting, he’s hit two or more three pointers in six games in a row. His volume in general is way up over the past five games with his average attempts over that period being almost six a game. The Wolves also will use Jaden McDaniels to either bother Jamal Murray or Michael Porter Jr which means Christian is going to get Edwards or potentially even Mike Conley defending him the majority of the time. On top of that, Minnesota will likely double Nikola Jokic often and that’s going to pull Christian’s defender into the paint at least a couple times tonight. On top of all that…+175, how can you not bet it?
