Trail Blazers vs Nuggets 11/9/15

Let’s just forget about what happened last night. The nice thing about the NBA season is there are 82 games. Portland has already played 7 and have 75 to redeem themselves. Their next opponent should not give them as much trouble as the 29/27 Andre Drummond.

The Denver Nuggets do have a player that plays similarly to Drummond’s style. Kenneth Faried, I’d like to think of as a poor man’s version of Drummond. He plays just as hard as Drummond does all the time, but does not have the physical presence to dominate like he does. Faried seems to have a really nice game every once in a while, where he goes berserk like Drummond seems to do every game.

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The player to watch on the Nuggets is point guard Emmanuel Mudiay. It will be an interesting matchup between the two point guards and should result in a shootout. Mudiay is a rookie that has traveled all around the world to play basketball, starting in the Democratic Republic of Congo, then moving to Texas and then setting up in China. Mudiay now resides in Denver after being the 7th overall pick in the 2015 draft. It should be interesting to see how Mudiay’s size counters Damian Lillard‘s relentless ability to score. I’m intrigued if Lillard can influence Mudiay to keep turning the ball over on offense, as he leads the NBA in turnovers so far in the early part of the season.

Also on the Nuggets is leading scorer is Danilo Gallinari, an Italian playmaker who can hurt defenders from deep and inside. Gallinari was acquired by the Nuggets in the Carmelo Anthony deal, one of the few players still remaining on the Nuggets. Gallinari can hurt the Blazers if he gets hot like Reggie Jackson did in the beat down on Sunday night. Gallinari’s career high came last April when he dropped 47 on the Dallas Mavericks.

I just named the few Nuggets that are involved in almost every offensive play. Like every team in the NBA the Nuggets also run a version of the classic pick and roll. Denver’s involves a double screen at the elbows and the point guard(Mudiay) making the decision of what to do. In this particular play he chooses the screen set by Faried and the help is not there soon enough. Mudiay just puts his head down and will not be denied the points.

In the same play Mudiay goes in Faried’s direction once again. Now the help forces him to the man in the corner and stay at the top of the key. Now J.J. Hickson (Ex Blazer) sets the screen for Gary Harris and he becomes the scorer. This is a play that the Blazers would want to happen, a Hickson jump shot. But, the jump shot is created after Harris blew by his man and required help leading to Hickson being open.

Now like I stated earlier, the Nuggets like to get Faried involved on the offensive end. In this play there is a screen set for Faried to get open on the post. This was the first play of the game when the Nuggets played against the Lakers. Faried scored, and the Nuggets should have kept going to him the next possession, or until the Lakers defender stopped him.

The Nuggets try to run this play the very first game as they did against the Warriors when they played them.

Now like I said before every team runs pick and rolls. Whether the pick and roll works depends on the craftiness of the point guard. Mudiay has been compared to Magic Johnson because of his size and ability to pass. In this pick and roll play Mudiay notices that the help from Faried’s man is shading towards him. Hickson slips behind the help and gets the easy dunk.

The reason Gallinari is such a good scorer is because of his ability to shoot, post up, and his movement off the ball. When you possess all three of these things you can be a threat at all times because your opponent has to know where you are at all times. The defender in the play below does not know where his man is and gives up an easy bucket that could have been prevented. Plays like these can be the difference between a win and a loss in a close game.

Every team also needs a play where they can get a quick three point bucket even if they are not a team known for shooting threes. The Nuggets like to use a very simple play that allows veteran Jameer Nelson to come off a stagger screen and get off a shot. In this play the stagger screen shot was not open. Nelson resets the offense and gets a pick for himself. He makes use of the pick and gets off a clean jump shot.

The Nuggets are a sneaky good team. They beat the Rockets on opening day in Houston by 20 points. However both of their wins came on the road. This game is in Denver and the Nuggets do not possess a home court advantage at all. Now the Blazers can either perform like they did in their last game following a loss in a doubleheader, or they can play like they did in the previous three games.

For Portland to take this game they have to limit Denver’s three pointers. They are not a three point shooting team, but they have a couple players that could get hot. We do not want to lose another 15+ lead to a team that we could have put away. This is part of the learning process that Blazer fans have to accept.

I think that Portland takes this game and stays even with the Thunder in the Northwest Division. Portland is still the defending Northwest Division Champion and OKC will have to take the crown from Rip City before we give it away.

Portland Trail Blazers Preview: Denver Nuggets

By Joel Viss | Nov 9, 2015