Nuggets Hornets Preview

The last time these two teams played the Nuggets escaped with the win by pulling away in the fourth quarter. Lawson and Chandler should be back for this game which will be a nice tune up for when they travel to San Antonio to take on the Spurs.

Ty Lawson dropped 21 points and 13 assists as he abused the Hornets defense the entire game. I dont expect those type of numbers again since he is coming off of an injury, but I think he could still post respectable numbers. Greivis Vasquez, who has been the biggest surprise this season, had 13 points and 9 assists. You dont have to worry about him scoring too much, but he will drop dimes all day and he crashes the boards well.

Andre Iguodala had 24 points on 10-14 shooting and he also had 6 rebounds 4 assists and 3 steals. He will be charged with shutting down Eric Gordon who is an explosive scorer. He only had 9 points the last time these two teams met, but he only played 25 minutes. Look for him to get more minutes and to shoot more, but it will be tough against Iggy.

Gallo had 18 points 7 boards and 5 assists in the first matchup, but it will be tough for him to replicate that because Al-Farouq Aminu is a very good defensive player and rebounder. He does not do much on the offensive end besides dunk. He is not a reliable jump shooter and will not take a lot of shots throughout this game.

Faried has to try and stop Anthony Davis who is starting to gain steam now that he is healthy. Faried had 13 points and 9 rebounds and 2 blocks in the first matchup. It will be tough for him to score since Davis is bigger and longer, but he will still get his fair share of dunks. Davis had 13 points and 10 rebounds and 3 blocks, but I expect him to post bigger numbers in this matchup since he has grown as a player especially over the last couple of games.

Koufos did not have a great game, only posting 4 points and 5 rebounds, but he held Robin Lopez to only 2 rebounds which is an accomplishment. This won't be a high scoring matchup, but it is an important one on the boards to say the least.

The Nuggets bench performed well in the last game against the Hornets. Brewer had 17 points and 3 steals, sparking the Nuggets like he normally does. I am glad Andre Miller will be regulated back to bench duty, where he does his best work, with Lawson's return. Wilson Chandler had a bad shooting night, 1-5 from the field, but he got to the line a lot, 8 times, and made 7 of them.

The Hornets bench is not great, but they do have Ryan Anderson who is a great stretch 4. He dropped 21 points on the Nuggets the last time the two played. He is there only really good player off of the bench, but Jason Smith is no slouch and is a solid big man.

The Nuggets are looking to extend their streak to 16 and they have a good chance to do it against the Hornets, especially if Chandler and Lawson are back.