Washington @ Denver -- 3/22/05

Mamba · Mar 21, 2005

<div align="center">@
The Washington Wizards (336-28) @ The Denver Nuggets (35-30)
Time: 9:00 PM Eastern
Place: The Pepsi Center
TV: CSN, NBALP</div>

<div align="center">Wizards' Head Coach

Eddie Jordan</div>

<div align="center">Wizards' Projected Starting Lineup

Gilbert Arenas- 25.4 ppg, 5.3 apg, 4.5 rpg
Larry Hughes- 21.9 ppg, 5 apg, 6.2 rpg
Jared Jeffries- 6.7 ppg, 1.9 apg, 5 rpg
Kwame Brown- 6 ppg, 1 apg, 5.1 rpg
Brendan Haywood- 9.7 ppg, .9 apg, 6.9 rpg
</div>

<div align="center">Nuggets' Head Coach

George Karl</div>

<div align="center">Nuggets' Projected Starting Lineup

Andre Miller- 13.2 ppg, 6.4 apg, 4.2 rpg
Dermarr Johnson- 6.4 ppg, 1.1 apg, 2 rpg
Carmelo Anthony- 20 ppg, 2.7 apg, 5.7 rpg
Kenyon Martin- 15.6 ppg, 2.5 apg, 7.6 rpg
Marcus Camby- 10.1 ppg, 2.1 apg, 10.1 rpg
</div>

<div align="center">Bench Factors

(Steve Blake,Earl Boykins)
</div>

<div align="center">Key Matchup

(Gilbert Arenas, Andre Miller)
Projected Stats
Gilbert Arenas: 27 points, 6 assists, 6 rebounds
Andre Miller: 15 points, 7 assists, 4 rebounds</div>

Keys to the Game
Washington:
<ul>
[*]Kwame- Kwame has missed the past two games due to the flu, he should be back and healthy for this game. He is going to be a key component to a victory with Antawn Jamison out, he is going up against a physical Kenyon Martin, this is no game for him to be soft.
[*]Steve Blake- Steve Blake has been huge for us lately off of the bench. He has been able to knock down the 3 consistently, a big plus for the Wizards, can he do it in this game?
[*]Start Strong-This is the start of a 5 game road trip, we are very capable of going 3-2 on that trip, possibly even 4-1 if we can sneak out this W. We need to come out strong, play the whole game strong and get the W.

[/list]

Denver:
<ul>
[*]Limit Rebounds- Without Jamison, the Wizards are missing a key rebounding piece. They can't allow the Wizards to get countless offensive boards, that obviously leads to second chance points, which will help the 'Zards out tremendously.
[*]Andre Miller- Andre Miller is lengthy, but he is not as strong as Arenas. Arenas is bulkier than him so Arenas will naturally try to take advantage of that. Miller is going to have to have a good defensive game and frustrate Gilly.
[*]Be Aggressive with Kwame- Whoever is playing opposite of Kwame, Kmart or Nene, they both are bigger than him physically. They need to take it to him because Kwame is known to be tentative and soft, add that to missing 2 games with the flu, he is going to be hesitant out there because he will still have some ill effects from the sickness, take it to him hard, take advantage of that.
[/list]

Random Movie Quote*
Brian: Get some sour cream and onion chips with some dip, man, some beef jerky, some peanut butter. Get some Haagen-Dasz ice cream bars, a whole lot, make sure chocolate, gotta have chocolate, man. Some popcorn, red popcorn, graham crackers, graham crackers with marshmallows, the little marshmallows and little chocolate bars and we can make s'mores, man. Also, celery, grape jelly, Cap'n Crunch with the little Crunch berries, pizzas. We need two big pizzas, man, everything on 'em, with water, whole lotta water, and Funyons.
Kenny Davis: That's it?
Thurgood Jenkins: Yeah, get me a box of condoms, and, what was that thing we used to eat back in the day? What was it... oh yeah, p---y.
*Idea taken from Supersonic

 Prediction
I think this will be a close game all the way throughout, but I have to give it to Denver. They have been on a roll lately and they are at home, I still think Washington will go 3-2 on this road trip though. Denver wins 107-104.