A demonstrably happier Reggie Jackson this season.
Can we please find room for this man in mid-management? Overpay! Sell a Walmart store!
Still keepin' the seats warm for Big Honey & The Anchorman.
The Nuggets arrive in Detwah, desperately in need of a victory.
Pre-Game Thoughts: The well rested Pistons enter this game with a 6 game losing streak in tow, which means that road weary & fatigued Denver has a slight chance at actually winning on the road. Colorado's own Reggie Jackson is enjoying a fantastic season fully recovered from injury, Drummond as always is a problem and Bradley & Harris are excellent all around players.
The Nuggets at some point have got to give the appearance of making adjustments or it'll be impossible for people NOT to ask for the general's head. Malone has never been a good in-game coach (I'm on record as saying he'd be the best assistant head coach in the league) but he gets blamed for the execution of his players more than he should.
What is fair to criticize however, are his confounding rotations; the 5 players he puts out on the court at once are more often than not ill-fitted to each others strengths and more importantly weaknesses, he doesn't seem to know when to use timeouts or make lineup adjustments to stem the tide of momentum, he grinds certain players into the dirt because he trusts them; not because they are necessarily producing, he fails to change offensive strategies that are proving to be ineffective and I have yet to see any evidence that he is teaching team defense, whatsoever.
Denver is routinely demolished by P&R and his answer, rather than having the big men hedge and or trap when available, is to insert Faried which basically requires a switching D and that essentially means any team at any time can get exactly who they want matched up against the exact player they want guarding them. If Murray is in the game that means he's surely getting posted up by a much larger/stronger man for essentially an uncontested bucket. Malone's adjustment lately has been to play Barton at the point. The problem there is that he's utterly disinterested in playing any d on the perimeter and is too streaky as a shooter to take the amount of iso chances that he does.
The obvious solution there is to play Mudiay defensively in the P&R, who is the best Nuggets guard not named Harris at getting through/around screens but more importantly, finding himself in good rotational position in secondary action should a help defender magically materialize the way they are supposed to. They don't. Coaching or player execution? I genuinely don't know. This allows Denver to play straight up defensively with hedging, sagging and trapping rather than leaving men all together uncovered or even worse for for this Nuggets roster anyway, switching.
Additionally, Mudiay is the ONLY Nuggets player capable of creating for others (with Jokic out) on the other end. Any points he gets on a good shooting night are just a bonus.
I don't advocate for this move however, because I believe next season is the Nuggets first good chance at contention, so they may as well salvage a decent draft pick while discovering if there is a PG buried deep down inside of Murray & continue to allow Mudiay's development from the bench since he isn't making a stink about coming off the bench. Team chemistry: There is no analytic for it but it is perhaps the single most important aspect of winning basketball. I'd argue that momentum, another unquantifiable aspect to NBA ball might be #2. I don't however suggest bringing that up in any SBnation comment section.
Who knows? Perhaps Malone is under order of management to make the wrong in-game decisions at all times in return for a contract extension? Things certainly have that appearance as of current.
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And now what none of you come here for; how about some basketball nerdery?!?!
(After these messages... Er Nicknames)
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
Detroit Roster:
Dwight Buycks "To All Road Games Like Neal Peart"
Langston "The Butler" Galloway
Luis "Colegio Comunitario" Montero
Stanley "The Stat-Nerd's Scapegoat" Johnson
Henry "The Avatar Bet" Ellenson
Eric "Just Give The U.P. To Wisconsin Already. Why Do You Need" Moreland
Andre "Diff'rent Strokes" Drummond
Update: Millsap had successful left wrist surgery and is expected back some time around the all star break. Jokic is out for "a few games" with a sprained ankle/stress ridden mind. Chandler is probable with a sore back and Plumlee is probable with a strain of the abdominal muscles for the Nuggets. As for Detroit, Leuer is out with an ankle injury, Bradley & Moreland are both ill & questionable.
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Data: Open this link in a new tab for the definition of TPM™
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TPM™ Game 27 DET
Jamal Murray: +23
Emmanuel Mudiay: -1
Monte Morris: +1
Gary Harris: +21
Will Barton: +12
Malik Beasley: -1
Torrey Craig: N/A
Wilson Chandler: +27
Juancho Hernangomez: -2
Richard Jefferson: N/A
Paul Millsap: N/A
Kenneth Faried: N/A
Trey Lyles: +20
Darrell Arthur: -3
Tyler Lydon: N/A
Nikola Jokic: N/A
Mason Plumlee +12
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Total TPM™ starting Game 1 vs. Uta
Jamal Murray: 27 Games +243
Emmanuel Mudiay: 27 Games +279
Monte Morris: 1 Game +1
Gary Harris: 25 Games +332
Will Barton: 27 Games +272
Malik Beasley: 24 Games +61
Torrey Craig: 1 Game +0
Wilson Chandler: 23 Games +168
Juancho Hernangomez: 14 Games -14
Richard Jefferson: 8 Games -2
Paul Millsap: 16 Games +173
Kenneth Faried: 23 Games +48
Trey Lyles: 22 Games +118
Darrell Arthur: 4 Games -11
Tyler Lydon: 1 Games -3
Nikola Jokic: 21 Games +314
Mason Plumlee: 27 Games +80
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Avg. TPM™ Per Game
Jamal Murray: +9.00
Emmanuel Mudiay: +10.33
Monte Morris: +1.00
Gary Harris: +13.28
Will Barton: +10.07
Malik Beasley: +2.54
Torrey Craig: +0.00
Wilson Chandler: +7.30
Juancho Hernangomez: -1.00
Richard Jefferson: -0.25
Paul Millsap: +10.81
Kenneth Faried: +2.09
Trey Lyles: +5.36
Darrell Arthur: -2.75
Tyler Lydon: -3.00
Nikola Jokic: +14.95
Mason Plumlee: +2.96
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TPM™ Per-Minute Splits Through Game 26:
*Credit DomP on the Spreadsheet. It's as if my (nerdy) baby (TPM™) learned to speak
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Analysis:
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Qtr1- The Nuggets go with Murray, Harris, Barton, Chandler and Plumlee. The Pistons counter with Reggie Jackson, Avery Bradley, Reggie Bullock, Tobias Harris & Andre Drummond. OOOOH! Ally is in a latex net-pattern tonight! Not too shabby. DENVER WINS THE OPENING TIP FOR THE 2ND GAME IN A ROW! That's 2-25 on the year. Tough start for Drummond. The official scorer is inactive, doing me no favors to start this one. Fortunately, so is the scoring. Denver is up 9-3 at 8:00 with Chandler off to another good start. Barton is visibly upset when Plumlee refuses to pass it to him for some freelance iso ball, in favor of running offense. It results in an excellent look for Harris that he misses, but illustrates what happened in the 4th QTR & OT last game nicely. Denver is looking better defensively than they have thus far on this 6 game road trip. They are up by ten at 3:40. Tobias has his 2nd foul and checks out. Beasley is first off the pine for the Nuggets for the 3rd straight game. Lyles checks in shortly thereafter. Plumlee nabs his 2nd foul at 2:13 and is replaced by Darth who immediately chucks up an air ball from deep. Boban is currently pwning Darth down low. Denver is paced in TPM by Chandler and Barton, both +10 as they take a 26-18 lead into the 2nd.
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Qtr2- Still no Faried, which in my opinion is the correct call. Playing him for any length of time with our short bench is a defensive recipe for disaster currently. Gary is invisible thus far. Beasley however is not. Darth looks completely lost out there and NEEDS to be replaced. DET has cut it to 3 at 7:44. Plumlee who is playing well, replaces him. Monte Morris' Mom's hairstyle matches Ally's dress. Seriously, go back and watch the interview. Lyles is starting to get going and the Nuggets are up by 6 at 5:47. This is a low scoring affair for two offensive minded teams. Plumlee may have a 2d by halftime if he can avoid nabbing that 3rd foul. Are we allowed to criticize Barton's turnovers now that he's the PG? Chandler is the first Nugget in double figures, though 4 others are within a bucket. That makes 2.5 straight games of balanced scoring. Denver is paced by Chandler's +15 TPM, have three players at +8 and the Nuggets lead 49-40 at the half.
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Halftime: Smoke break? Don't mind if I do.
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Qtr3- Murray and Drummond bang knees early and you hate to see that for either team. Both men remain in however and Murray scores the first 7 for Denver, as they lead by 12 at 10:29. Murray is the 2nd Nugget in double digits. Haha! Marlowe sneaks in his trademark blue humor in pontificating upon a big Murray dunk in which he stuck out his tongue; "Give 'em the tongue." Hastings' voice has a tone of "Man, you are going to get us fired" to it. Gary is starting to contribute both in shooting and passing. The Nuggets are up by 16 at 6:44 as Jackson goes down and Marlowe declares "Down goes Frasier." He is on point tonight & the great Irv Brown would be proud. Murray has 22 and is currently en fuego. "The Nuggets are chuggin' along and the Pistons have stalled" declares Marlowe, clearly under the influence of performance enhancing drugs. The Nuggets are up big, 72-52 at 3:48. DET is simply ice cold in this half. Plumlee finally has his 2d at 1:10. He and Lyles are the 3rd and 4th Nuggets in double figures. Denver is paced in TPM by Lyles +10, Plumlee +12, Murray +14, Harris +18 & Chandler +23 and lead after an impressive third period, 80-60.
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Qtr4- Darth is surprisingly getting a 2nd look and I don't hate it. You need to give a vet like him an opportunity to redeem himself. Both teams are missing everything with two minutes having passed which is just fine when you have a 22 point lead. Darth still can't stick his threes but is playing stout D on Drummund, who is struggling mightily tonight. The Nuggets still lead by 21 at 8:18. How will they find a way to fumble this one away I have to wonder. The answer, they promptly display, is in failure to defend the three point line of course, as DET nails three in a row and the lead is now 15. Two straight three's by Murray off of good passes by Barton pump the lead back up to 21. The key stat of the night is FT shooting where Denver is 13-14. Monte Morris makes his Nuggets debut at 2:52 and we have a Juancho sighting as well. Denver is paced in TPM by Plumlee & Barton +12, Lyles +20, Harris +21, Murray +23 & Chandler +27 as they win going away. 103-84.
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Final Thoughts: Good looking W on the road and all things considered, Denver has won 2 of the 6 on the road which is about as good as we should have expected with three starters playing through injury, not to mention Jokic and Millsap out. I love Faried but until we have our star center back, he creates too much of a defensive liability, as tonight's game vividly illustrated. Now all they need is a repeat performance of Mudiay's B2B game last season in bean-town, to make it a very good road trip.
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