This formidable trio once again has the Blazers in the thick of things out West.

Speaking of thick, It's no secret that I'm a huge Nurkic guy, just not so huge as THIS Nurkic guy.

The Band is back together! FINALLY! Wait... is it?

Nuggets vs Blazers II:

When last these two teams squared off in game 22 of this season the Nuggets (lap) enjoyed double figure TPM contributions from five players led by Nikola Jokic: +25. No players were in the red for that match-up as the Nuggets narrowly escaped the Pacific Northwest with a victory, by a final score of 113-112.

As for this game, today is my birthday so I'll be crying at a movie about dogs which lets out as the game tips off so lets skip ahead to the numbers. No analysis tonight as mentioned in my last piece.

Here are some numbers you can use:

Portland gives up PPG by their opponents on average, to Denver's 105.4

The Blazers average ppg offensively to the Nuggets 110.7

This results in a net rating for PHO of and +5.3 for Denver.

Portland is on the road while Denver is at home

In terms of conference record The Blazers are to the Nuggets 17-8 mark

Denver is also the only team in the league that is undefeated (5-0) within their division which means next to nothing aside from using it as a barometer in the strength of competition level

Denver of course leads the Western Conference standings while Portland currently resides in place, games out

When it comes to the other meaningful statistical box-score production the comparison is as follows:

(team with advantage in bold)

PDX: RPG APG SPG BPG FG% .461 FT% 3%

DEN: RPG 47.3 APG 27.4 SPG 8.13 BPG 4.75 FG% .465 FT% .749 3% .351

The numbers on whole but as anyone who reads my piece knows, I don't believe any statistic or even a complex, predictive conglomeration of statistics are nearly as accurate in indicating actual results as are the unquantifiable variables of "Mo & flow™" momentum and the ability to find the zone. To that end, Denver has won 11 of their last 15t while

For Denver, individual consistency is simply not a thing for this squad so it's more difficult to predict how a player will contribute based upon trends; particularly so as the starters begin filtering back from injury and roles are altered/redefined in the coming games. Jokic has been consistently good but in different ways seemingly every night.

With that said, Big Honey is a legit MVP candidate and an emerging superstar, while Murray is coming into his own as Robin to The Joker's Batman (I'm not certain how that works either) while Millsap/Harris provide secondary options when things get problematic on offense; simultaneously carrying the bulk of the defensive burden and the Nuggets boast one of the deepest benches in the league, even without Vandy, I.T. and MPJ.

There are of course many other variables at play including match-ups; styles make fights. For example

Prediction: Denver (lap ) - Portland

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If you are viewing the pre-game version of the TPM piece; and you enjoy Gonzo-basketball reporting, I invite you to please join me after the game where the same link will lead you to the post game version. In it, all of the disjointed/unsightly blanks below will be filled, complete with data/analysis and more snark than "Snarknado VI: Snakenado", which I'm told is about a pessimistic, albino, black mamba who emerges from micro-bursts to torment the people of Los Angeles with shady tweets.

There be monsters; shameless, personal plug alert! (by permission of Denver Stiffs): If you are in the market for clothing, featuring the four major Denver sports franchises as well as CU, please open this link in a new tab to see if there is anything you are interested in. You don't have to order from the link of course if you are in the Denver Metro area, as I'm more than happy to meet up with you (please refrain from bringing rotten tomatoes), drastically lowering the cost, as Poshmark takes a healthy cut as well as shipping & handling. Thanks in advance!

Unique, hard to find, one of a kind and custom gear of your favorite team

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And now what none of you come here for; how about some basketball nerdery?!?!

(After these messages... Er Nicknames)

Portland Trail Blazers Roster

NO	Name	POS	Age	HT	WT	College	Salary
8	Al-Farouq "The Chief" (Why mess with a good thing?) Aminu	PF	28	6' 9"	220 lbs	Wake Forest	$6,957,105
2	Wade "The 4th Baldwin Brother" Baldwin IV	PG	22	6' 4"	200 lbs	Vanderbilt	$1,544,951
33	Zach "Zag" Collins	PF	21	7' 0"	235 lbs	Gonzaga	$3,628,920
31	Seth "Mahmoud He Ain't" Curry	SG	28	6' 2"	185 lbs	Duke	$2,795,000
4	Maurice "The Space Cowboy" Harkless	SF	25	6' 9"	220 lbs	St. John's	$10,837,079
10	Jake "The Term Limit" Layman	SF	24	6' 9"	215 lbs	Maryland	$1,544,951
11	Meyers "Gargantuan Bieber" Leonard	PF	26	7' 1"	255 lbs	Illinois	$10,595,506
0	Damian "Shaggy" Lillard	PG	28	6' 3"	195 lbs	Weber State	$27,977,689
3	CJ "Slap Some Specs & Suspenders On Him & You've Gotta Admit, He's Urkel" McCollum	SG	27	6' 3"	190 lbs	Lehigh	$25,759,766
27	Jusuf "The Bosnian Beast" Nurkic	C	24	7' 0"	275 lbs		$11,111,111
24	Anfernee "Little Penny" Simons	SG	19	6' 4"	185 lbs		$1,760,520
6	Nik "Sauce Castillo" Stauskas	SG	25	6' 6"	205 lbs	Michigan	$1,512,601
50	Caleb "Not Only Can I Swan, I'll" Swanigan	PF	21	6' 9"	250 lbs	Purdue	$1,740,000
9	"Scary" Gary Trent Jr.	SG	19	6' 6"	205 lbs	Duke	$838,464
1	"7-11" Evan Turner	SG	30	6' 7"	220 lbs	Ohio State	$17,868,853

Denver Nuggets Roster

NO	Name	POS	Age	HT	WT	College	Salary
5	Will "The People's Champion" Barton	SG	27	6' 6"	190 lbs	Memphis	$11,830,358
25	"Mutant" Malik Beasley	SG	22	6' 5"	195 lbs	Florida State	$1,773,840
3	Torrey "FUCKING" Craig	SF	27	6' 7"	215 lbs	USC Upstate	$2,000,000
2	Brandon "Hopefully Contributes To Many The" Goodwin	PG	23	6' 2"	180 lbs	Florida Gulf Coast	$630,032
14	"Just" Gary Harris	SG	24	6' 4"	210 lbs	Michigan State	$16,517,857
41	Juancho "The Mouthful" Hernangomez	PF	23	6' 9"	230 lbs	Espana	$2,166,360
15	Nikola "Big Honey" Jokic (AKA The Joker)	C	23	7' 0"	250 lbs	Gotham	$24,605,181
20	Tyler "Not just Anunobody" Lydon	PF	22	6' 10"	225 lbs	Syracuse	$1,874,640
7	Trey "The Swiss Army Spork" Lyles	PF	23	6' 10"	234 lbs	Kentucky	$3,364,249
4	Paul "The Anchorman" Millsap	PF	33	6' 8"	246 lbs	Louisiana Tech	$29,230,769
11	Monte "Ratio" Morris	PG	23	6' 3"	175 lbs	Iowa State	$1,349,383
27	Jamal "The Blue Arrow" Murray	PG	21	6' 4"	207 lbs	Kentucky	$3,499,800
24	Mason "Plumdog Millionaire" Plumlee	PF	28	6' 11"	235 lbs	Duke	$12,917,808
1	Michael "The Sleeper Cell" Porter Jr.	PF	20	6' 10"	210 lbs	Missouri	$2,894,160
0	Isaiah "Ice" Thomas	PG	29	5' 9"	185 lbs	Washington	$1,512,601
8	Jarred "The Amalgamated Version Of A Dude I Once Bought Weed From On Haight Ashbury" Vanderbilt	PF	19	6' 9"	214 lbs	Kentucky	$838,464
45	Thomas "Irvine" Welsh	C	22	7' 0"	255 lbs	UCLA	G-Money

Update: MPJ and I.T. are sleeping on Ice, awaiting intel as to when their services will be required. Rookie Jared Vanderbilt will have to wait to make his rookie debut until long after R.O.Y. candidate Thomas Welsh, as he recovers from an actual injury. Barton is a game time decision and all indications are that he'll give it a go. Harris is a game time decision with an achy hammy, as is Lyles with a wrist tendered by draining shot after shot. As for the

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Data:

TPM™ Game 42 PDX

Jamal Murray: +9

Isaiah Thomas: Injured

Monte Morris: +6

Brandon Goodwin: N/A

Gary Harris: N/A

Malik Beasley: +6

Torrey Craig: -1

Will Barton: +7

Juancho Hernangomez: -7

Michael Porter Jr.: Injured

Jared Vanderbilt: Injured

Paul Millsap: +5

Trey Lyles: N/A

Tyler Lydon: -2

Nikola Jokic: +42

Mason Plumlee: +4

Thomas Welsh: N/A

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Total TPM™

Jamal Murray: 42 games +730

Isaiah Thomas: 0 games +0

Monte Morris: 42 games +500

Brandon Goodwin: 9 games +17

Nick Young: 3 games -2

Gary Harris: 25 games +384

Malik Beasley: 42 games +269

Torrey Craig: 38 games +20

DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell: 6 games +5

Will Barton: 4 games +49

Juancho Hernangomez: 41 games +5

Michael Porter Jr.: 0 games +0

Jared Vanderbilt: 0 games +0

Paul Millsap: 34 games +324

Trey Lyles: 39 games +210

Tyler Lydon: 14 games +9

Nikola Jokic: 42 games +922

Mason Plumlee: 42 games +310

Thomas Welsh: 8 games +17

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Avg. TPM™ Per Game

Jamal Murray: +17.38

Isaiah Thomas: N/A

Monte Morris: +11.90

Brandon Goodwin: +1.89

Nick Young: -0.67

Gary Harris: +15.36

Malik Beasley: +6.40

Torrey Craig: +0.55

DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell: +0.83

Will Barton: +12.25

Juancho Hernangomez: +0.12

Michael Porter Jr.: N/A

Jared Vanderbilt: N/A

Paul Millsap: +9.53

Trey Lyles: 5.38

Tyler Lydon: +0.64

Nikola Jokic: +21.95

Mason Plumlee: +7.38

Thomas Welsh: +2.13

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TPM™ Per-Minute Splits Through Game 40:

*Credit DomP on the Spreadsheet. It's as if my (nerdy) baby (TPM™) learned to speak

Qtr1- The Nuggets again go with their 8th iteration of the injury-replacement starting five, consisting of Murray, Beasley, Craig, Millsap & Jokic. The Blazers counter with

Denver is paced in TPM by as they after one.

Qtr2- The

Denver is paced in TPM by as they at the half.

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Qtr3- The

Denver is paced in TPM by as they after three.

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Qtr4- The

Denver is paced in TPM by as they
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Final Thoughts: James Harden's splits in defeat tonight: 11-32 from the field, 1-17 from three & 15-16 from the charity stripe. Seriously, fuck that guy.

The Nuggets Win

We Suck Again!

For context pertaining to the statistical aspects of this piece, please open this link: TPM™

A brief statement with regard to this piece on whole:

As a means to avoid repeating myself I will include this descriptive diatribe in all TPM posts going forward.

Sure I like statistics; ever since I was a child collecting sports cards and later a pre-teen who ran pre-internet fantasy sports leagues on ink/paper/spreadsheet for the four major US pro-leagues, I've been fascinated by box-score stats but I'm by no means an expert.

I created TPM (which has been around longer than RPM incidentally and unlike them, I fully disclose my non-proprietary system and I contextualize the action rather than being a boring, mysterious, predictive metric) because it does add immediate and accessible context to what we see and what the numbers indicate, which I like.

While the data is meticulously tracked and demonstrably sound, I'm a creative type, not an engineer. Algorithm is the bane of my existence in fact. I'd far rather approach life with the intrigue of expected surprise than attempt to get to the bottom of why things are the way they are. There are many engineers in my family so I totally understand that joy can be derived from finding solutions to problems, I just can't relate. It's not fun for me. THIS is for the most part, not fun for me.

Now I'm a 41 year old man who was born the year after the team I love joined the NBA. I happen to have a lifetime of experience with this sport in several different capacities, including playing (highly underrated within the writing community) so I understand basketball theory in a way most (by no means all) pundits do not.

I was in this case interested in a data-driven approach, which if I'm honest has sapped nearly all fun out of taking in games for me. I get very few days/nights off during the season. One piece requires several hours of research and data entry and all tracking/analysis is done in real time and published mere moments after each game's completion, 82 times (more this season) per year.

As such, the analysis portion is about 90% (I've run the numbers) creative writing with sarcasm generally indicated through italics, non-sequitur humor and hyperbole, in an attempt to steal back some of the joy this endeavor has snatched away.

Hopefully there is a little something here for everyone but if you came just for data or are averse to colorful language, this is not the place for you. I have no way of knowing how many people even read this so I'll not be affected even remotely if you choose not to indulge. For those of you who do, I greatly thank you for the support.

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