Coach: Tyronn "Galaxy Glue" Lue

Update: JaMychal Green and Greg Whittington will miss another one with a left calf strain and left knee sprain respectively. For the Clip's, whichever Morris twin plays for them wants none of Millsap and faked an injury.

Re-up: Yes I'm aware that trades/acquisitions may have been made and the above roster and or coach for the opposing team may be inaccurate. Hopefully you are aware that the fan-post format isn't equipped to make adjustments to the above template so it often results in entire pieces being destroyed and or hours of work being lost. Simply put, it's not worth the additional effort/risk to change once the Nuggets have faced an opponent once. No disrespect intended. Tune in next season and I assure you the first time Denver plays your team, the roster will be up to date.

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Data:

TPM™ Game 2 LAC (Starters in bold)

Nikola Jokic: +37

Jamal Murray: +11

Michael Porter Jr: +6

Will Barton: +10

Gary Harris: -1

Paul Millsap: -2

Monte Morris: +9

Isaiah Hartenstein: +1

JaMychal Green: N/A

PJ Dozier : -5

Bol Bol: -3

Facundo Campazzo: +0

Zeke Nnaji: N/A

RJ Hampton: N/A

Vlatko Cancar: N/A

Greg Whittington: N/A

Markus Howard: +0

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Total TPM™

Nikola Jokic: 2 games +88

Jamal Murray: 2 games +8

Michael Porter Jr: 2 games +23

Will Barton: 2 games +21

Gary Harris: 2 games +6

Paul Millsap: 2 games +12

Monte Morris: 2 games +4

Isaiah Hartenstein: 2 games -1

JaMychal Green: N/A

PJ Dozier: 2 games +2

Bol Bol: 1 games-3

Facundo Campazzo: 2 games +1

Zeke Nnaji: N/A

RJ Hampton: N/A

Vlatko Cancar: N/A

Greg Whittington: N/A

Markus Howard: 1 games +0

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Avg. TPM™ Per Game

Nikola Jokic: +44.00

Jamal Murray: +4.00

Michael Porter Jr: +11.50

Will Barton: +10.50

Gary Harris: +3.00

Paul Millsap: +6.00

Monte Morris: +2.00

Isaiah Hartenstein: -0.50

JaMychal Green: N/A

PJ Dozier: +1.00

Bol Bol: -3.00

Facundo Campazzo: +0.50

Zeke Nnaji: N/A

RJ Hampton: N/A

Vlatko Cancar: N/A

Greg Whittington: N/A

Markus Howard: +0.00

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TPM™ Per-Minute Splits Through Game 1: (temporarily last season's chart to allow time for new data)

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

Analysis:

Qtr1- The Nuggets go with their opening night starting five, consisting of Murray, Harris, MPJ, Millsap & Jokic. The Clippers counter with PatBev, Batum, PG13, Kawhi & Ibaka. Denver debuts their red "city" skyline jerseys on this festive Xmas evening. Game note: PG is a hacker. Go right at his ass. Same for PatBev, obvy. On cue, PatBev is ticketed for mugging Murray at 11:15. Batum gets the scoring underway with a corner three at 10:27. Denver leads 7-6 at the time of the first break, 8:54. MPJ looks focused in the early-going. PatBev earns an offensive foul, his 2nd, and checks out at 8:44. MPJ has two steals, a three, two dunks and seven points, as LA leads by one at 6:00. Harris/Millsap have been invisible thus-far. They've contributed a combined 0/0/0 as the Clippers take a three point lead into the commercial break at 5:51.

LA is en fuego from downtown and they lead by seven at 4:26. Barton is first off the pine for the good guys at this time, replacing the ineffective Gary Harris. Ibaka nabs his second foul and checks out at 4:15. Dozier enters at 3:33, trailing by three. Morris is in at 2:31 and only Jokic remains in for the starting five. Zubac quickly earns his second foul but he remains in as LA's bench is not what it was last season. Dozier earns two quick fouls as Denver trails by four at 1:49; LA is in the bonus. Facu is in at this time, as is Bol for the first time in his career. Big Honey takes his well-earned first breather with under a minute to play. He's on pace for 40/16/16. Hartenstein replaces him. Patterson is ticketed for his second foul and LA is really getting into foul trouble early. PG finally misses for the first time in the closing seconds of the first period.

Denver is paced in TPM by Nikola Jokic: +17 as they trail 26-32 after one.

Qtr2- The Clippers try a zone D to open the second which Denver expertly dissects for an easy dunk. PG is STILL out there! Two straight threes by LA forces a rage-timeout by Malone. Murray enters after the break. The Nuggets should NEVER have all three of Jokic/Murray/MPJ on the bench like that. LA's lead has ballooned to 14 at 9:02. PG has STILL not had a break. Patterson earns his third foul at 8:05 as the starters begin filtering back in for the good guys. Murray needs to learn the art of flopping when being bodied in the post by Leonard. PG FINALLY sits; replaced by the aforementioned Kawhi at 8:03. Murray gets his third foul, but he remains in at 7:16, trailing now by 13. He is completely out of sorts, and as usual, as Jamal goes, so go the Nuggets. The LA lead is 16 as they head to a break at 6:25. Ibaka joins Patterson on the LA bench with three fouls.

Denver has just eight total rebounds! Only Jokic has more than one! Harris finally contributes; a beautiful behind the back pass to Millsap for two. LA leads by 14 with 4:10 to go and they are in the bonus. The crowd in Denver is silent. The Clippers have made 12-20 from beyond the arc, and they lead by 15 at 3:30. PatBev also sits with three fouls. Zubac is camping out in the lane for a combined 11 seconds in consecutive plays. No whistle of course. Why is Nuggets PA guy Kyle Speller still doing his ricockulous call and response of "who's ball... Nuggets!" when there are no fans in the Nut-sack? That is the worst aspect of his PA game, even when the arena is full. The lead for LA is 17 again with 1:15 to go. This is even uglier than the season opener. Jokic and Morris are in double digits for Denver. Jokic has been the best player on the court, yet Denver trails by 17. So many no shows for the Nuggets.

Denver is paced in TPM by Nikola Jokic: +21 as they trail big, 55-72 at the half.

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Qtr3- I'd rather drink egg nog and chill with my dog but... Nuggetry. This just isn't any fun so far this season. Ibaka nabs his 4th foul early and must sit, but the lead for LA is 21. Harris FINALLY scores, trimming the lead to 19 at 9:03. MPJ makes three in double digits for Denver. PatBev nabs his 4th foul at 7:57, and he's replaced by Lou. Murray scores a layup, cutting the lead to 16 at 7:23, and LA calls a timeout. Two straight layups for Murray; good to see. I'm gonna need Gary Harris to stop attempting to shoot the ball. 'Sap cuts it to 15 on a three at 5:25. He is ticketed with his 4th foul soon-after and is replaced by Barton.

Dozier is also in for MPJ. Joker is two boards and one dime shy of B2B 3D's. Kawhi ALSO has four fouls and he checks out at 3:50, leading by 19. The time is now, if Denver has any designs on making this interesting. Denver is gun-shy from beyond the arc unfortunately. Murray makes four in double digits for Denver on an 18 foot contested J. LA still leads by 19 at 2:59. Apart from Jokic, nobody for Denver has more than three rebounds. The refs are swallowing their whistles and it's getting physical as a result. PG for three, and they have their biggest lead of 24 with 1:13 to go. Barton makes five in double digits for Denver.

Denver is paced in TPM by Nikola Jokic: +30 as they trail 98-79 after three.

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Qtr4- All Xmas songs are putrid, but the ska number being played between periods on Altitude, is especially repugnant. Denver scores four straight from jump-street, cutting it to 15. Two more from PJ forces LA to call a timeout. Four straight for Kawhi and it's back to sucking. Five straight for Jamal; is this finally it? Is he getting it going? The lead for LA is 14 at 7:40. Another three for Jamal! LA leads by 11 as they take a timeout at 6:22; something they've doe just about any time Murray scores tonight. Joker needs one board and one dime for the 3D. PatBev with a hard foul on Murray after Jamal stole the ball and was prone on a layup. In replay it's shown that Ibaka elbowed the bejezuz outa Kawhi who's down in a heap, bleeding all over the nut-sack wax.

3.5 periods of nothing to see, followed by .5 of utter mayhem. Kawhi heads to the locker room and Denver MUST take advantage of this reprieve. Ibaka gets his 5th foul at 5:20. This is followed by Batum/PatBev each getting their 5th in short order. Joker has a 2D with 22/9/10 but B2B threes against PJ, on slow close-outs, mean the lead is up to 14 again. Murray has gone cold again and PG hits a three. Fuck! LA leads by 11 at 2:43, heading into a commercial break. Hector's having some puppies? No Scott. Don;t attempt humor. Not in your wheelhouse. PatBev hits a three and I've seen it all. the lead for LA is 11 at 1:02 and that should just about do it.

Denver is paced in TPM by Nikola Jokic: +37 as they suck again, this time by a final score of 108-121

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Final Thoughts:

• Gary has got to sit. This is getting into the realm of mercy.
  
  

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We Suck Again!

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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 43 year old man who was born during the season in which 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 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.