Hey all. I'm not sure what happened to my last post, but I was at the Nuggets/Heat game last Tuesday and did a recap of my observations. Due to some other things going on, unfortunately I did not get to attend the Nuggets/Sixers game last Friday and missed Jokic's game-winner. That's alright because last night's game against the Hawks was equally satisfying, right? Well...

Here are my observations:

1. With the Nuggets' new ticketing system, you can still take a screenshot of a ticket and text it to a friend if they are meeting you at the game. I realize this is a fairly common thing, but that's something that doesn't work anymore with Broncos tickets. The lesson, as always, is that the NFL is the worst.
2. I don't recall seeing a single Hawks fan in attendance, but that may change in the future when more people learn about this Trae Young kid. My goodness.
3. Not many shenanigans in the crowd for this one. I honestly think they were pretty stunned by how easily Atlanta sliced through the Nuggets defense. Took them out of the game for a good portion.
4. I didn't know until after the game that Beasley had been ruled out with an illness, so that explains this gripe a little bit, but I thought Malone employed a very strange rotation last night. Morris, Grant and Plumlee all played about their usual amount off the bench. Craig and MPJ combined for 13 minutes TOTAL. I understand that MPJ was struggling on defense, and Craig is... well, Craig, but to me that seems like a lot of minutes on your starters and top three reserves. Of course, the Hawks employed a similar rotation, so maybe I'm off the mark here.
5. If you look at the box score, it's kind of amazing that the Nuggets only lost by four points. Their three-point shooting was abysmal and the Hawks were cleaning up the defensive glass all night long.
6. According to my buddy, one of the guys who was on The Bachelor was hanging out with PawS the DJ during halftime. Talk about a random celebrity cameo.
7. It's nice to see Will Barton back to being his productive self, just as it's completely frustrating to watch Gary Harris struggle to find his offensive rhythm. Is it injuries causing his slide? Is it all mental? You guys know better than I do.
8. The buddy I was with has gone to a lot of games with me, and at every one of those except one, Rocky has missed his half-court shot. Sure enough, Rocky couldn't get the shot to fall through his first several tries, but he finally sank it on the last one. I told my friend, "I was just about to say, 'Why does he never make that when you're here?!'"
9. Trey Young is a bad man. When he drained that three in front of our bench and then started them down, the crowd instantly reacted and started murmuring a little bit. He was the best player on the court last night and everyone knew it.
10. And if I'm spending too much time waxing poetic about Atlanta's burgeoning superstar, it's because our guys just didn't step up in the same way. I know there's been a lot of talk about Jokic around here and concerns about his motivation and the shape that he's in (I mean that literally, because I keep hearing that people think he's round), but I'm still waiting for that classic Murray breakout game. That isn't to say he hasn't been good this year. It's just that he can be better. Hopefully he's not too banged up after that collision with Bembry on the Hawks.