GAME THREAD: BLAZERS @ NUGGETS - DECEMBER 2, 2014; TUESDAY, 6 PM (PST), KGW

S T A R T E R S




PG
DAMIAN LILLARD VS TY LAWSON

SG
WESLEY MATTHEWS VS ARRON AFFLALO

SF
NICOLAS BATUM VS WILSON CHANDLER

PF
LAMARCUS ALDRIDGE VS KENNETH FARIED

C
ROBIN LOPEZ VS TIMOFEY MOZGOV







WHEN: 6:00 PM, TUESDAY, 12/02/2014​

WHERE: Pepsi Center, Denver, CO​

TV BROADCAST:





RADIO BROADCAST:


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BENCH

PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS

BLAKE , CRABBE , FREELAND , KAMAN

DENVER NUGGETS
]
ROBINSON , HARRIS , GALLINARI , ARTHUR , HICKSON , MCGEE





INJURIES
TRAIL BLAZERS
Will Barton (illness): OUT
CJ McCollum (right index finger fracture): OUT
NUGGETS
Randy Foye (right vastus lateralis strain): OUT.





HEAD COACHES
- VS –
TERRY STOTTS --- BRIAN SHAW




BLAZERS' GAME NOTES ​

GO BLAZERS!!!​

 

Blazers @ DEN Game Preview (12/2/14):

Our Last game: W v. MIN 107-93, 11/30/14.

Their Last game:

Changes to their roster:

Injury Updates: CJ McCollum, Out (finger). Will Barton (day-to-day) Denver : Javale McGee (out), Danilo Gallinari (day-to-day), Darrell Arthur (day-to-day)

Matchups:

PG: Damian Lillard v. Ty Lawson (16.9ppg, 10.1apg, 41% FG)

SG: Wesley Matthews v. Aaron Afflalo (14.5ppg, 3.1rpg)/Randy Foye (8.4ppg, 2.4apg, 37% FG).

SF: Nic Batum v. Wilson Chandler (13.1ppg, 5.8rpg, 37% 3pt%).

PF: LaMarcus Aldridge v. Kenneth Faried (11.4ppg, 7.0 rpg).

C: Robin Lopez v. Timofey Mozgov (10ppg, 7.6rpg, 1.4bpg)

Give-a-Rip (City) Factor—a.k.a. why you should watch: To see if the Blazers can pull a complete game out of their hat. To see if Wes can keep up his hot streak (6+ 3’s in 3 straight games—something only done 3 other times in history). To see if Dame’s recovered from gastroerskjarksdlhitis. To see how good DEN’s D has become in the last two weeks. To see if we can pick up a game against our closest division rival.

Current Power Rankings:

RipCityTwo (PtldPlatypus): (18) Ty Lawson thinking the Nuggets are a top 3 team in the West gives new meaning to the term "Rocky Mountain High"

ESPN: (17) If you're looking for a fun conversation starter, try this one: Now that the Nuggets, with the ankle-breaking Ty Lawson leading the way and by uncharacteristically slowing down the pace, seem to have played their way into some peace for Brian Shaw, which coach resides on the hottest seat in the NBA?

Grantland: (Potential Interlopers) Remember when the Nuggets were fun to watch? Kenneth Faried had the occasional highlight, but the Denver offense was otherwise ugly through their first three halves of the season, shooting 19-for-86 (22 percent) from outside the restricted area. They made some shots in the second half in OKC on Saturday, but it wasn't enough to come back from 26 down.
The Nuggets should have more shooting on the wing with Gallinari and Arron Afflalo back, and Ty Lawson is a roadrunner with the ball as long as he can play on a balky ankle. Still: They were below average on both ends last season, and there’s a big jump from that level of output up toward 50 wins.

Covers.com (17) Starting with the upset of the Cavs in Cleveland, the Nuggets are a perfect 5-0 SU/ATS since the start of last week. I'm still not a huge buyer though.

NBA.com(17) As Evan Fournier looked like an early-season Most Improved candidate in Orlando, the Nuggets looked silly for trading a young player to pay Arron Afflalo a lot more money to help them lose games. But Denver has won six of seven and Afflalo has looked more like the player they traded for, shooting 18-for-31 (6-for-7 from 3-point range) over the last three games.

Link to Grandpa Blaze's Prediction Game
Link to MediocreMan's Over/Under game

Links to other team’s site(s): http://www.nba.com/nuggets/ Nuggets’ NBA page

Final Thoughts DEN is 8-2 in its last 10 games and its defense is starting to look NBA-caliber (after we hung a Bilbo on them). They’ve also slowed their pace down and Lawson/Afflalo are starting to play like the Nuggets anticipated when they were brought together. POR didn’t look good in its win over MIN (after all, it was MIN) and haven’t put a complete game together since before the East Coast road trip. Nic still looks like something’s off (I mean, you don’t have to be Forensic Fan to know 1-8 isn’t good), but Crabbe’s looking legit off the bench and I don’t have a full-body shiver each time I see him get ready to launch a shot. DEN’s always a tough place to play, but I think (hope?) that everyone got over their explosive diarrhea and will play a little looser tonight. Plus, the thing they do best on D is defend the 3, so letting Lawson try to get his without Afflalo hitting threes would be, in a word, ideal.

Blazers 108
DEN 92

 

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to KeepOnRollin again

 

Fixed. Thanks!

 

Yeah. Fixed it. Gracias.

 

preview updated, Post 2.