Blazers @ DEN Game Preview (12/2/14):
Our Last game: W v. MIN 107-93, 11/30/14.
ESPN said:
Aldridge nonetheless had 26 points and 15 rebounds in Portland's victory Sunday night over the Timberwolves, a game where the ill and injured seem to outnumber the healthy… Wesley Matthews added 23 points for the Blazers, including six 3-pointers for his third straight game with at least five 3-pointers. The Blazers led by as many as 16 points in the second half. Portland (13-4) was coming off a 112-99 loss to Memphis on Friday night that snapped a nine-game winning streak.
Their Last game:
ESPN said:
The Nuggets won 103-101 at Utah on Monday, holding the Jazz to 43 first-half points. Ty Lawson had 15 points and 12 assists and put his team ahead on a double-pump shot with 29.6 seconds left. Arron Afflalo was ejected for a flagrant-two foul Monday for clotheslining Alec Burks at the rim midway through the fourth quarter.
Changes to their roster:
Basketball Insiders said:
It’s kind of hard to believe that just two years ago, the Nuggets were one of the league’s most exciting upstart teams, but last season was the first without Masai Ujiri or George Karl, and it should have been obvious that life after losing one of the best execs and one of the best coaches in the NBA would be a little difficult. This year, things should be marginally better, with Nate Robinson, Danilo Gallinari and JaVale McGee both coming back healthy and Arron Afflalo (who was practically stolen from Orlando around the draft) back in powder blue. Rookie Gary Harris (and to a lesser extent Jusuf Nurkic) add depth to the rotation, making this an all-around better team than it was last year. They maybe aren’t as exciting as they were two seasons ago, but it won’t be anywhere near as painful to watch as it was in 2013-2014. Expect improvement out of the Nuggets this season.
Injury Updates: CJ McCollum, Out (finger). Will Barton (day-to-day) Denver : Javale McGee (out), Danilo Gallinari (day-to-day), Darrell Arthur (day-to-day)
Matchups:
PG: Damian Lillard v. Ty Lawson (16.9ppg, 10.1apg, 41% FG)
SG: Wesley Matthews v. Aaron Afflalo (14.5ppg, 3.1rpg)/Randy Foye (8.4ppg, 2.4apg, 37% FG).
SF: Nic Batum v. Wilson Chandler (13.1ppg, 5.8rpg, 37% 3pt%).
PF: LaMarcus Aldridge v. Kenneth Faried (11.4ppg, 7.0 rpg).
C: Robin Lopez v. Timofey Mozgov (10ppg, 7.6rpg, 1.4bpg)
Give-a-Rip (City) Factor—a.k.a. why you should watch: To see if the Blazers can pull a complete game out of their hat. To see if Wes can keep up his hot streak (6+ 3’s in 3 straight games—something only done 3 other times in history). To see if Dame’s recovered from gastroerskjarksdlhitis. To see how good DEN’s D has become in the last two weeks. To see if we can pick up a game against our closest division rival.
Current Power Rankings:
RipCityTwo (PtldPlatypus): (18) Ty Lawson thinking the Nuggets are a top 3 team in the West gives new meaning to the term "Rocky Mountain High"
ESPN: (17) If you're looking for a fun conversation starter, try this one: Now that the Nuggets, with the ankle-breaking Ty Lawson leading the way and by uncharacteristically slowing down the pace, seem to have played their way into some peace for Brian Shaw, which coach resides on the hottest seat in the NBA?
Grantland: (Potential Interlopers) Remember when the Nuggets were fun to watch? Kenneth Faried had the occasional highlight, but the Denver offense was otherwise ugly through their first three halves of the season, shooting 19-for-86 (22 percent) from outside the restricted area. They made some shots in the second half in OKC on Saturday, but it wasn't enough to come back from 26 down.
The Nuggets should have more shooting on the wing with Gallinari and Arron Afflalo back, and Ty Lawson is a roadrunner with the ball as long as he can play on a balky ankle. Still: They were below average on both ends last season, and there’s a big jump from that level of output up toward 50 wins.
Covers.com (17) Starting with the upset of the Cavs in Cleveland, the Nuggets are a perfect 5-0 SU/ATS since the start of last week. I'm still not a huge buyer though.
NBA.com(17) As Evan Fournier looked like an early-season Most Improved candidate in Orlando, the Nuggets looked silly for trading a young player to pay Arron Afflalo a lot more money to help them lose games. But Denver has won six of seven and Afflalo has looked more like the player they traded for, shooting 18-for-31 (6-for-7 from 3-point range) over the last three games.
Link to Grandpa Blaze's Prediction Game
Link to MediocreMan's Over/Under game
Links to other team’s site(s):
http://www.nba.com/nuggets/ Nuggets’ NBA page
Final Thoughts DEN is 8-2 in its last 10 games and its defense is starting to look NBA-caliber (after we hung a Bilbo on them). They’ve also slowed their pace down and Lawson/Afflalo are starting to play like the Nuggets anticipated when they were brought together. POR didn’t look good in its win over MIN (after all, it
was MIN) and haven’t put a complete game together since before the East Coast road trip. Nic still looks like something’s off (I mean, you don’t have to be Forensic Fan to know 1-8 isn’t good), but Crabbe’s looking legit off the bench and I don’t have a full-body shiver each time I see him get ready to launch a shot. DEN’s always a tough place to play, but I think (hope?) that everyone got over their explosive diarrhea and will play a little looser tonight. Plus, the thing they do best on D is defend the 3, so letting Lawson try to get his without Afflalo hitting threes would be, in a word, ideal.
Blazers 108
DEN 92
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BLAZERS' GAME NOTES 
