The Nuggets have played the Kings twice this season and beaten them both times. The Kings area team that could give the Nuggets trouble, but I doubt they do in this game since it is being played in Denver where the Nuggets have only lost 3 times this season. In their last matchup there was very little defense played as the two teams combined for 233 points. Lawson lead the charge for the Nuggets with 24 points and 7 assists. Isaiah Thomas went off for 23 points and 8 assists on 6-13 shooting.
Lawson needs to find a way to shut down Thomas and make him an inefficient scorer. Thomas will have a hard time stopping Lawson since he is so short. Lawson is coming off of an achilles bruise, but he says he hopes to play today. The offense did not look good at all when he was not on the court against the 76ers and it is evident how important he is to the offense.
Andre Iguodala stuffed the stat sheet in the first game with 6 points 7 assists 5 boards and 5 steals in the first game. He will face off against Tyreke Evans who has not found his niche in the NBA yet. In the first game, he held Evans to 7 points and only allowed him to get off 5 shots the entire game. I expect something like this to happen again.
Gallo went off for 23 points 23 points on 7-11 shooting in the first game, but he is in the middle of a bad slump. He has not played well over the past 5 or so games and he needs to find his way out of it before the playoffs start and playing John Salmons should be a easy way to do it. Salmons only had 11 points in the first game because Gallo's length bothered him the entire game. He has the potential to drop 20+ points in any game, but Gallo is too long for him to do so.
Faried had one of his better games of the season in the last matchup. He had 19 points and 12 rebounds to go along with a block. Jason Thompson is bigger than him, but he is not that great of a defender and there is no way he can run with Faried, but to be fair most power forwards cant. Thompson finished with 18 points because it is easy for him to shoot over Faried, but Faried dominated him on the boards. I expect Faried to do close to the same in this matchup as he overwhelms Thompson with his energy.
DaMarcus Cousins is one of the most volatile players in the NBA and he is very talented, but Koufos dominated him for the most part in the last game. Koufos held him to 8 points on 1-12 shooting while Koufos scored 15 points of his own. Cousins dominated him on the boards, pulling down 13 of his own, but as long as Koufos does not allow him to score the Nuggets should be fine.
Corey Brewer lead the charge off of the bench with a career high 28 points against Philly and he scored the last 6 points of the game. In his last matchup with the Kings, he only scored 5 points on 3 shots. Look for him to be more assertive in this game. Andre Miller played well in the first matchup putting up 16 points and 7 assists, but if he has to start due to Ty Lawson's injury the Nuggets are in trouble. This is evident because of what happened in the Philly game. McGee just needs to provide his usual energy off of the bench and he should get more run since Wilson Chandler is out. Fournier might get some playing time since Chandler is out, but he would get more if Lawson is out which he is not.
As with most bad teams the Kings have a poor bench, but Patrick Patterson is a good big man to have coming off of the bench. He can shoot and rebound, but it remains to be seen what type of minutes he will receive. I would like to see more of Jimmer get more minutes since the Kings are not going anywhere this season.
I expect the Nuggets to win this one easily and the Kings should never feel as if they have the chance to win.
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