Z-Bo & Juka Cracking up: One of my all time favorite photos.
"Denver heads to Sacramento licking their wounds, real and imagined on the 2nd night of a B2B"
Pre-Game Thoughts: I'll start this with a funny quote from the newest Nugget to the Denver Post's Gina Mizell:
Gina Mizell: #Nuggets Richard Jefferson on the fact that college teammate/close friend Luke Walton is an NBA head coach and he is still playing: "I’ve only played like 12 more minutes than him this season." Fair point.
So the Kings roster consists entirely of guards and big men; extremely old and extremely young. Only our old friend JaKarr Sampson is listed as a SF. IIRC, Z-Bo has always given Jokic fits in terms of how to defend Zach's unique but not entirely different from Jokic oddly, low-flying post game. The King's roster actually would help solve this problem on any other night given how many centers they have to slap Big Honey on but with Millsap out, it will be pretty difficult to put Faried on Randolph should he get the starting nod.
There are ALWAYS ex-Nuggets on the Kings roster and this team is no exception, with the aforementioned Sampson as well as K2.
Other than that, this Kings team is not too dis-similar to that Lakers team Denver faced last night (put down your torches Kings fans, I'll explain) in that they are rebuilding and have a very odd mix of young talent and savvy vets. This makes them a highly unpredictable team. You can predict that they will lose more than they will win, but you can also predict that they will have some crazy ass, out-of-the-blue, anomaly games where they destroy the likes of Golden State or Houston. That is just how it seems to work in rebuilding.
Tonight, I expect Denver to be embarrassed by yesterday's... ahem... "unpleasantness" and focused, but will that be enough to overcome the 2nd game of a B2B, the injuries to Sap and Ill-Will and playing on the road in what can be a very loud arena when attended? We shall see.
Finally, there's this:
Perfect. So Jokic WASN'T actually ejected? We get to replay the game, starting at the moment of the infraction right? Was Mott suspended?
Denver Roster:
Will "The People's Champion" Barton,
Juancho "Ironically, No Room For A Nickname" Hernangomez
Richard "The Dragon Slayer" Jefferson
Kenneth "The Manimal" Faried
Trey "Bien" Lyles
Darrell "Darth" Arthur
Tyler "Not just Anunobody" Lydon
Nikola "Big Honey" Jokic
Mason "Plumdog Millionaire" Plumlee
Michael "Mr Imagination" Malone
Sacramento Roster:
"He Got A Boo-Boo" Buddy Hield
Vince "I Have Almost As Many Bad Nicknames As Shaq" Carter
Malachi "Children Of The Corn" Richardson
Harry "This Year's Skal?" Giles
Willie "Or Wont He" Cauley-Stein
Georgios "Freaky Greeky" Papagiannis
Update: Millsap is out with a sprained wrist (x-rays were thankfully negative), Chandler is questionable with a sore back. Rodney Mott will not be officiating tonight's game nor will Michael Malone be coaching, for the Nuggets and Jokic is owed a full half of basketball and some change, to be added on to the final score the next time in which the Nuggets face the Lakers. He can choose to either face off against Rodney Mott during this time, or be forced to hoist jumpers despite the presence of an open teammate for the duration. He'll gladly choose the former of course. As for the Kings, V.C. is out with the stones, Buddy is out with a bad ankle and also out of service is one frying pan. You simply can not cook with a bad handle.
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Data: Open this link in a new tab for the definition of TPM™
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TPM™ Game 17 SAC
Jamal Murray: +9
Emmanuel Mudiay: +2
Monte Morris: N/A
Gary Harris: +18
Will Barton: +26
Malik Beasley: +5
Torrey Craig: N/A
Wilson Chandler: N/A
Juancho Hernangomez: +3
Richard Jefferson: N/A
Paul Millsap: N/A
Kenneth Faried: +3
Trey Lyles: +12
Darrell Arthur: N/A
Tyler Lydon: -3
Nikola Jokic: +19
Mason Plumlee -5
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Total TPM™ starting Game 1 vs. Uta
Jamal Murray: 17 Games +174
Emmanuel Mudiay: 17 Games +218
Monte Morris: 0 Games +0
Gary Harris: 15 Games +194
Will Barton: 17 Games +167
Malik Beasley: 16 Games +23
Torrey Craig: 0 Games +0
Wilson Chandler: 16 Games +101
Juancho Hernangomez: 6 Games -9
Richard Jefferson: 5 Games -7
Paul Millsap: 16 Games +173
Kenneth Faried: 15 Games +37
Trey Lyles: 12 Games +33
Darrell Arthur: 2 Games -4
Tyler Lydon: 1 Games -3
Nikola Jokic: 17 Games +254
Mason Plumlee: 17 Games +45
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Avg. TPM™ Per Game
Jamal Murray: +10.24
Emmanuel Mudiay: +12.82
Monte Morris: N/A
Gary Harris: +12.93
Will Barton: +9.82
Malik Beasley: +1.44
Torrey Craig: N/A
Wilson Chandler: +6.31
Juancho Hernangomez: -1.50
Richard Jefferson: -1.40
Paul Millsap: +10.81
Kenneth Faried: +2.47
Trey Lyles: +2.75
Darrell Arthur: -2.00
Tyler Lydon: -3.00
Nikola Jokic: +14.94
Mason Plumlee: +2.65
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TPM™ Per-Minute Splits Through Game 16:
*Credit to DomP on the Spreadsheet. It's as if my (very nerdy) baby (TPM™) is learning to speak
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Analysis:
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Qtr1- The Nuggets go with Faried in the place of the injured Millsap, and Barton is in for Ill-Will. Otherwise the starting unit is in tact. Sacramento will go with Fox, Hill, Temple, Skal & Z-Bo. Ally is rocking the shoulder pads tonight in her first questionable wardrobe choice of the season to date. "Officials can be important in certain games" deadpans Marlowe, as he introduces us to tonight's crew. Jokic is guarding Skal and Faried is on Z-Bo; I dislike the prospects of both but it'd be even worse in reverse and could reap benefits on the Nuggets offensive half of the equation. Denver seems focused as predicted and leads 11-5 at 9:23. Skal picks up his 2nd foul and must check out at 8:21. Murray should know as a fellow KY guy, you can not turn your back on Fox defensively. He knows now. The crowd is eerily silent to this point. Mudiay and Lyles check in at 5:58. Plumlee is in soon after. Bad start for Plumdog/Mudiay, and it's knotted up at twenty with 3:15 to play. Juancho checks in and I believe we've likely seen everyone who will play for the Nuggets tonight. What's gotten into K2? He just fed Juancho his lunch. SUPER sloppy play with Jokic on the bench right now. Murray nabs his 2nd foul at :24, but remains in. Have I ever mentioned that I loath playing the M&M PG's together? Well I do. At this point it is simply too much to think about. We want them to be comfortable at one position so they can just react. Lyles ties it up with a floater and it's 22 all after one.
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Qtr2- Jokic is back in to begin the 2nd. Sacramento has some speedy PG's. Denver is simply not getting movement and as a result, assists. Murray notches his third foul at 9:29. That's trouble. Barton is now running the point. Why are the Nuggets not going into the post with Jokic? I didn't even finish typing that before they do and he scores. The Kings are doing Denver a favor by staying perimeter. Mason and Fox can get around Barton, Murray and Harris any time they want. The team miraculously remembers how to pass with Big Honey orchestrating and Denver leads 36-31 at 6:27. Mudiay is back in to run the point. Barton is the first Nugget to reach double figures. The Nuggets have 10 TO's already and the Kings tie it up at 43 with 3:28 to go in the half. I bet Malone is really gonna curse them out at halftime. Barton is back at the point again. Not sure that I fully understand Mudiay's short stints but to be fair, he is struggling mightily. With this lineup, we now have Juancho guarding Fox and vice versa. Denver is paced by Barton +10 TPM and it's 47 each at the half.
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Halftime: Smoke break? This team is going to kill me!
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Qtr3- Jokic seems to be coming out more assertive. It would be hard not to. He has the first 5 points of the half for either squad. He's popped in the face by Skal for his efforts. I put new batteries in my remote prior to game one and just learned that they apparently last a little more than 16.5 games worth of TPM. Good to know. Murray gets his 4th foul at 8:20 and he's replaced by Mudiay. He looks far better in there with the starters than he did with what's left of the bench in the first half. Jokic is shooting aggressively, but misfiring from deep. The Nuggets are going cold and SAC sneaks in to tie it up at 6:07 of this low scoring event, 56 all. Big Honey FINALLY drills a three. Jokic and Harris are the 2nd and 3rd Nuggets in double digits. Jokic now has a 2d. I love to watch Mudiay fight through screens. He's starting to "get it". Denver now has their largest lead, 10 points on the strength of a 14-4 run. Lyles has two straight from deep and still has yet to have a bad showing on the year. Marlowe, Marlowe, Marlowe. At this point I KNOW you are doing the "Willie B Buckets" thing just to taunt me. Denver is paced by Harris +15, Jokic +16 & Barton +21 TPM and leads 81-70 after three.
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Qtr4- I hope it's just the Mono but to this point in the year Juancho has shown no defensive improvement. Harris is carrying the team on both ends at the moment as they extend the lead to 14 at 9:46. Murray, to his credit, is attacking more tonight at the rim. Juancho is to HIS credit, looking much better on the offensive end at least, as he's the 4th Nugget in double figures, followed in short order by Murray who is now shooting from outside with confidence. Amazing how that happens when you take it to the rack a few times. The Nuggets seem to be putting this one away as Jokic alley-oops one to Murray and Denver leads 105-87 with 4:28 to go. Unlike last night, only one player (Plumlee) is negative in TPM (-1) tonight so there's that. Denver is up 19-4 in the 2nd chance points department, a vast improvement over last night. Beasley and for the first time of his career, Tyler Durden, er Lydon is in so you KNOW this one's over, with Denver leading by 18 and 1:30 to play. Denver has 4 players in double digits TPM, lead by Jokic +19 & Barton +26 and they cruise 114-98.
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Final Thoughts: Good bounce-back game. I'm gonna go smoke again, but this time it's celebratory.
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