Game Preview Article 02/13: Portland Trailblazers @ New Orleans Hornets
Portland made a big effort last night against the Heat, but that still wasn't enough, as Miami just toyed with them the whole game. Miami only seemed to be focused an with a decent effort on defense during certain parts of the game. Miami started the game with a 15-4 run, then they started the second half with a 23-6 run and ended the game on a 16-2 run! I we combined these runs, the Heat outscored the Blazers by 54-12 during these spans! However, Portland had some incredible offensive individual offense individual performances. After shooting 1-16 FG at Orlando, Damian Lillard had 10-18 FG and 33 points against the Heat, while LaMarcus Aldridge shot 13-20 FG and Wesley Matthews 8-13 FG. These performances were all thanks to great individual shooting plus poor close outs from Miami and not because of a great ball movement, as Portland ended the game with just 15 assists for just 39 FG made! When Miami stepped it up in terms of defensive effort in the final quarter, it was a festival of blocks and steals from the Heat's defense that automatically resulted in highlights plays for them.
Tonight Portland will end their 6-games road trip and of course, for a team without depth, playing a final game road trip on a back to back spot, it won't certainly be easy. This is why New Orleans is a reasonable favorite in here. Eric Gordon will return tonight and the Hornets will want to keep the momentum going after a nice 3-game road trip, where they won at Atlanta and Detroit, despite some struggles from Anthony Davis. Greivis Vasquez is playing at a high level and I wouldn't be surprised if at the end of the season he is mentioned as one of the contenders for the Most Improved Player of the Year award.
Denver had another exciting game last night at Toronto and you can check more about it on my recap article about that game. In theory, Denver is one of the worst matchups the Nets can face. Brooklyn is one of the slowest paced teams in the league for a reason: they lack foot speed not only on the perimeter, but also on the frontcourt. Deron Williams and Joe Johnson are big but slow, while Reggie Evans and Brook Lopez are far from being mobile interior players. This is why Brooklyn gets completely crushed by fast paced teams once in a while, especially in transition. Atlanta scored 29 fast break points against them, Houston scored 27 fast break points and even Miami scored 20 points on transition plays. You know the trill about this Nuggets team, right? (#1 in the league in fast break points per game)
The problem for Denver tonight is that they will be ending their road trip and they will be on a poor spot: fourth game in five days, with all of them being on the road, including an exhausting triple overtime game at Boston last Sunday! It's possible that Danilo Gallinari, Andre Iguodala, JaVale McGee and Wilson Chandler may all play tonight and with that the Nuggets can compensate a bit this poor spot with their good depth, but we have to think twice in taking them on this contest, as measuring effort levels is always a tough task, especially on a team that depends so much on their energy levels as the Nuggets.
Game Recap 02/12: Denver Nuggets @ Toronto Raptors
What a fun game this was to watch! Obviously, considering the final score, it's clear that this game was played Denver's way, with a 91.2 face factor! As much as Toronto's perimeter is now more explosive after the trade, the truth is that they were only able to be that on the offensive end yesterday, as they struggled on defense with the Nuggets doing everything they wanted off the dribble, especially Ty Lawson, who completely outplayed Kyle Lowry on this matchup by scoring 29 points with 9 treys made on a 12-20 shooting night! The Raptors's frontcourt were unable to rotate and offer some team help, so the result of that was Denver scoring 70 points in the paint! The Nuggets also owned the Raptors on the boards battle by grabbing 55% of the total boards and outrebounding Toronto by 18-15 on the offensive glass. So, as usual, when Denver gets the edge at the paint and on rebounding, they are competitive, no matter the opponent they are facing at the time.
On the other side, Toronto took advantage of Denver's absences to have a big offensive game. DeMar DeRozan would have been very well defended by Andre Iguodala if he had played, but as Iguodala was out of yesterday's game, DeRozan had 22 points, 8-18 FG and 8 rebounds. Toronto shot a combined of 10-21 3pts and 13-23 FG on spot up shooting on a great outside shooting game for them. It's known that the Nuggets aren't a good defensive team in closing out the shooters and without their best perimeter defensive player on a poor physical spot for them, Denver naturally struggled on this department. This was especially visible during the fourth quarter. Do you want some proof of that? Well, these are the treys made by the Raptors during the fourth quarter:
10:22 80-85 John Lucas makes 26-foot three point jumper (DeMar DeRozan assists)
9:45 82-88 John Lucas makes 26-foot three point jumper (Rudy Gay assists)
9:10 83-91 John Lucas makes 26-foot three point jumper
7:03 89-94 Kyle Lowry makes 26-foot three point jumper (Amir Johnson assists)
6:18 92-97 John Lucas makes 25-foot three point jumper (Kyle Lowry assists)
5:13 94-100 Alan Anderson makes 26-foot three point jumper (John Lucas assists)
2:15 102-105 Alan Anderson makes 24-foot three point jumper (Amir Johnson assists)
From the 10 FG made by Toronto in the last quarter of the game, seven of them were three pointers! Still, the Raptors had problems to keep up with Denver's game pace, something ironic considering it was the Nuggets who were on a bad spot and shorthanded for this game!
Game Recap 02/11: Washington Wizards @ Milwaukee Bucks
The Wizards were finally able to show their good moment on a road game. They have been playing great at home for a while, but they weren't being able to bring their good form to the road games as well. With just 7 minutes of action in their game at Milwaukee, Washington was already down by 10 points, but they didn't fold this time. Larry Sanders is really a key piece for the Bucks and as soon as Samuel Dalembert picked up his second foul early in the first quarter, Milwaukee was forced into going to the bench earlier than they would have liked. Thanks to that, Washington's frontcourt simply dominated the game, with Nene Hilario having 10-13 FG, 21 points, 13 rebounds and 6 assists in 37 minutes of action, while Emeka Okafor had 5-8 FG, 12 points and 10 rebounds. Even Kevin Seraphin had a good game coming off the bench with 3-5 FG, 7 points and 6 rebounds, even though he played just 15 minutes. Washington scored 50 points in the paint and shot 21-31 FG at the rim, while decimating the Bucks's poor interior defense.
With the Wizards's post up working great, they played an effective inside-out game as well, with their best two backcourt players John Wall and Bradley Beal ending the game with a combined shooting of 15-23 FG! Washington shot 56.8% FG, one of their best marks of the whole season. It was also the highest FG% Milwaukee has allowed the whole season! Washington moved well the ball for most of the game, having dished 29 assists on 42 FG made. Despite their red hot start, Milwaukee shot just 43% FG, mostly thanks to an excellent defensive performance from Washington, especially John Wall, who was amazing on guarding Brandon Jennings, not allowing him to penetrate into the basket and forcing him to settle for shots that he didn't want to take. Jennings eventually scored just 7 points on a 3-17 FG shooting night. Milwaukee needs to be efficient on offense if they want to keep playing on the fast tempo they have been playing, but with Monta Ellis and Brandon Jennings on the court at the same time, their lack of in-game consistency has been a massive problem for them that only got worse with Larry Sanders out thanks to a knee injury.
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