Doug Pensinger - Getty Images
All he does is win.
Leg one of the Sixers' stretch against a few tough teams kicks off tonight when the Denver Nuggets come to town. Coming off a 10 point win in Milwaukee, the Nuggets will be playing their second game in as many nights as the Sixers represent game two in a five road game for the Nug Show.
The Nuggets have been dubbed "Sixers West" by many, because of the vast similarities between the teams. Both teams are very good – a notch below the league's elite – but lack a true "superstar". Also, both teams play at a fast-ish pace and use their athleticism, depth and team-oriented offenses to wear down weaker opponents.
Bench
Not many NBA teams can go toe-to-toe with the Sixers prolific bench, but the Nuggets do. The Sixers rank third in the NBA with 42.3 bench points per game; the Nuggets average 43.4. Unlike the Sixers bench, the Nuggets bench consists of mostly veterans. Andre Miller is the facilitator, Al Harrington is instant offense, Corey Brewer is the glue guy, Rudy Fernandez stretches the defense and Chris Anderson rebounds and blocks shots. If the Sixers are to win tonight's game, they're going to need a monster performance – both offensively and defensively – from the Night Shift.
Guy-for-guy, the Nuggets bench foils the Sixers admirably. Andre Miller can post Lou, Corey Brewer and Chris Anderson should be able to bother Thad, and the Sixers will have a tough time guarding Al Harrington. Denver also has a few Liberty Ballers' lovechildren on their bench, in rookies Kenneth Faried and Jordan Hamilton. However; it's unlikely either sees any action tonight.
Injuries
Spencer Hawes will be a game-time decision tonight with back and Achillies injuries, and Evan Turner should be good to go after missing last game with a quad injury. For the Nuggets, Rudy Fernandez missed last night's game with a strained Achillies and he's questionable for tonight.
Starters
For the starter's the Nuggets have Arron Afflalo at the two. He's a bigger, better defending Jodie Meeks. He hasn't played all that well this season, but can always get hot from deep. Ty Lawson starts at the one; him and Jrue should be a great match-up to watch – the two were both selected in the 2009 draft. Danilo Gallinari starts at the three – who like Andre Iguodala is the Nuggets best player. We all know how good of a defender Andre is, but Gallo has some serious height on him (6'10"). And the two Nuggets big men are Nene and Tim Mozgov. Nene – like EB – has had his ups and downs offensively this year, but will be the X-Factor tonight, because the Sixers lack significant interior defense. Mozgov is kinda just in there because he's big. Although he starts every game, he only averages 16 minutes.
Team Stats
The Nuggets rank first in the NBA in pace and assist rate, so expect an up-and-down game with a lot of team ball being played. Unlike the Sixers, the Nuggets turn the ball over a lot (25th in the league), so there's an area the Sixers can exploit.
Both teams sport top five offenses, play team basketball, run eight or nine deep and play fast. Ultimately, this has all the makings for an extremely entertaining ball game and undoubtedly the Sixers first difficult home game of the season. A week ago they were unable to prove their elite-ness with a loss in MSG to the Knicks. Tonight they get another chance to prove they are indeed, for real, against the 9-5 Denver Nuggets.
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0 recs | 51 comments
One misleading thing about that turnover stat is that ....
… a lot of those have come in garbage time with the Nugs trying to execute the perfect alley – oop. One time with success…..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OUfvQgTcwg
margabelle - January 18, 2012
Aren't they number 1 in steals though.
10.89 is what NBA.com has.
BIBTD - January 18, 2012
sounds right. don't know if that is still true as Denver had...
… two very disappointing home losses where we didn’t do Jack Squat.
margabelle - January 18, 2012
They force the fourth most TOs. Remember, the Nuggets stats are going to be slightly inflated because of pace.
Jordan Sams - January 18, 2012
I'm new with stats.
Since reading the TGP and BGN, I stop watching ESPN and looking at a stats. Didn’t think it would be so complex. Darn.
BIBTD - January 18, 2012
It’ll come with time. Any questions anyone here will help.
Jordan Sams - January 18, 2012
Most advanced stats, at least the ones I use, make sense logically.
For instance shooting percentages. The regular shooting percentage stat is the basketball version of batting average. It tells you something but not the whole story. a .275 hitter with a .300 obp is not the same thing as a .275 hitter with a .350 obp. The problem with shooting percentage, much like how batting average doesn’t include walks and treats singles and hone runs equally, is that it doesn’t include free throws and treats 2s and 3s equally. This is why Effective Field Goal Percentage and True Shooting Percentage exists.
eFG% adjusts for the fact that a 3-point shot is worth more than a 2-point shot. It showed that Jodie Meeks, whose 3-point attempts and makes were more than half of his shots taken, was a better shooter last season than Evan Turner who posted an identical 42.5% shooting percentage.
TS% does the same thing as eFG% but it also factors in free throws. eFG% measures how well a player shoots and TS% measures how efficiently a player scores. Lou Williams generally rates pretty high in this in spite of his low shooting percentages because he takes a decent amount of 3s and gets to the line pretty often. Because of this TS% shows that Lou is a much more efficient scorer than Turner is this season despite his shooting percentage being 4.2% lower.
It may feel like I’m picking on Turner here but this is my main criticism of him. I really wish he’d get to the line more often.
yosoysean - January 18, 2012
should be a nice game
Can’t wait to get home, turn on the game, pour myself a glass, and watch this matchup. Should be an exciting, fun matchup. I think a lot of this will depend on the 1st Quarter.
Dan Pearson - January 18, 2012
What are you going to pour a glass of? Can’t leave folks with that kind of Cliffhanger!
I’m excited to see this one as well. I quite enjoy the Philly team and I want to see how Thad looks this season. Was hoping Denver would pry him away, but that would have been a mistake with how nice Al Harrington is playing this year … and Gallo too.
Nate Timmons - January 18, 2012
Out of all the teams that lost superstars I feel like this is the one team that came out on top.
xEgan - January 18, 2012
One thing to consider
Nuggets aren’t too good at getting stops.
Dan Pearson - January 18, 2012
If the Nuggets are a “quality team” and we beat them, does that mean the win is still tainted with an asterisk because they played last night and we didn’t? If Hawes doesn’t play and we lose, can we play the “Nuggets played us when we were injured” card?
dp - January 18, 2012
You can only play the games on the schedule. The Sixers will be at a disadvantage plenty of times this season.
Jordan Sams - January 18, 2012
like Saturday
against the Heat at their home court on no days of rest.
BIBTD - January 18, 2012
sorry – keep forgetting the /sarcasm tag
dp - January 18, 2012
It’s a valid question though.
Jordan Sams - January 18, 2012
as if i wasn't already juiced up for this match-up...
i’ve always liked the nuggets. since they melo trade i thought the level of ball played by george karl’s team has been amazing. this year, they do have similar numbers and figures to the 7-6 but i think they play more of a physical game than we do. that being said though, i think we will be able to run on them when harrington and miller get in the game. bird can block shots but i’m not really afraid of slashing just because he is in the game. All things considered, the sixers should win this game unless they have a cold night where nothing goes in the hoop because the nuggets are not a mistake-free team to say the least.
J.Michael Woodson - January 18, 2012
I think Jordan Hamilton is in the D-League right now
KJ Brophy - January 18, 2012
Noob question
like does anyone watches the D-league. I mean most of those guys will never be a great player unlike the minor leagues in baseball.
BIBTD - January 18, 2012
I’ll watch it sometimes if it’s on NBATV
KJ Brophy - January 18, 2012
Not necessarily true – a bunch of very good NBA players spent time down there. And this blog is very pro D-League.
Michael Levin - January 18, 2012
Hamilton is back up with the team. He was with the Idaho Stampede for 10 days, along with Julyan Stone.
Hamilton was actually active last game, in place of Rudy Fernandez, for the first time all season. But don’t expect to see him, Faried or Stone on the court … unless George Karl has been slipped a crazy pill.
Nate Timmons - January 18, 2012
This game should be pretty sweet. I hope I get out work in time to watch. I’m a big fan of Ty Lawson, his speed may give us problems tonight. I bet Dre shuts down Gallo and I’m hoping Turner has a nice game tonight. See ya’ll later..
jrb5094 - January 18, 2012
No Spencer = Loss.
I thought Nene was Denver’s best player?
tst29 - January 18, 2012
No, because, obviously, the only thing that matters is points and Gallinari is their leading scorer.
grego314 - January 18, 2012
I’d argue that Danilo is.
Jordan Sams - January 18, 2012
I’d argue that Afflalo is.
yosoysean - January 18, 2012
He’s the best player who no one can remember his last name.
xEgan - January 18, 2012
I heard worse...
Kolodziej.. I’ve tried 4 years and still cannot pronounced it.
BIBTD - January 18, 2012
Actually, nobody can remember his entire name! Nene's real name: Maybyner Rodney Hilario
His nickname is Nene – which means ‘Baby’ in Portuguese, from his days growing up with the older kids and always trying to play with them. Big time soccer player.
Nate Timmons - January 18, 2012
Maybyner Hilario. Didn’t have to look that one up.
yosoysean - January 18, 2012
Or read the comment above me apparently.
yosoysean - January 18, 2012
imagine how good the nuggets will be...
when jr smith and wilson chandler get freed from china. theyre deeeeeep
griffeagles - January 18, 2012
aren’t they both free agents?
xEgan - January 18, 2012
nah
im pretty sure there playing in china because they didnt get opt out clauses. the chinese season ends in march
griffeagles - January 18, 2012
JR is free agent, and he's not coming back. Karl hates him. Karl said Fernandez is "JR without the insanity"
Chandler is a RFA, who complained about not having a big enough role on the Nuggets. May play out the season in Denver if Denver in serious contention in the West. Otherwise, we’ll trade him while we can
margabelle - January 18, 2012
Nuggets fan here
this is probably the most accurate preview of our team this year from an opposing blog.
Should be a good game! Also Kosta Koufos might be the back-up center in this game over Anderson who isn’t playing well at all on the road this year. Koufos gets playing time for the same reason Mozgov does, he is big.
CloudBurst - January 18, 2012
+1 from another Nugs fan.
This is the first time I read an opposing blog, and I am impressed. I checked because I thought this would be a great match-up. In Denver I’ll be pouring Don Julio Silver.
Namklak - January 18, 2012
Koufos puts up some impressive numbers in the short time that he plays. Not having seen him play very often I wonder why that is. Maybe I’ll see tonight.
yosoysean - January 18, 2012
nuggets fan here
shouldn’t it be nuggets east? no disrespect to the sixers (my favorite team along with the bulls out east cause of their “teamness” as george karl likes to say) but the nuggets have put up 50 win seasons on the reg the last decade.
anyway, this should be a great game. i have been looking forward to this matchup for a while. i hope the nuggets aren’t looking past philly to the matchup with melo later this week. focus can be a problem for my nuggs even with j.r. and melo gone.
i think that speaks loudly of karl. great coach, but stuck in his ways, and mitigates his communication with players to other coaches. he is also being very stubborn about his rotations this year playing 8-9 players no matter how they come out on a given day when the team is 15 players deep (obviously 12 on game day).
most of us at denver stiffs think that the rookie faried and kufos should be playing instead of “pump fake” anderson. god i hope he doesn’t see any time against brand who has the pump fake mastered.
anyway i am a big fan of iggy, hawes and turner so i hope the latter two both play.
my prediction, denver 108 – philly 103.
Patrick KB. Nugget - January 18, 2012
The current Melo-less roster configuration is what makes the Nuggets like the Sixers. Since the Sixers are the team that had a team like this first, the Nuggets are the “Sixers west”.
yosoysean - January 18, 2012
maybe, but they haven't had any level of success with that lineup until this year.
wasn’t philly a .500 team last year with essentially the same lineup? he nuggets are 27 and 12 since trading melo, signifying a high level of success with the team first/depth style of roster, therefor i still say the sixers are now the nuggets east
Patrick KB. Nugget - January 18, 2012
Nope. We were first!
yosoysean - January 18, 2012
Not on a Sixers blog!
RickoT - January 18, 2012
hehe fair point
Patrick KB. Nugget - January 18, 2012
When asked if Spencer Hawes would play tonight, Coach Collins replied “probably not.” Adds if Spencer can’t go, Vucevic would start.
yosoysean - January 18, 2012
Not a Hawesome night =(
xEgan - January 18, 2012
Dang. Hopefully he’ll be good to go for Friday and Saturday.
nyunole - January 18, 2012
This is a real problem for the Sixers. They are dependent on Hawes for a lot of things and if he isn’t reliable, the Sixers need someone else, which they don’t have. It’s too early in the season for all these injuries, which makes me wonder about Hawes as a long-term player.
RickoT - January 18, 2012
Excited for this game. Should be a good litmus test for the Sixers.
Ben16 - January 18, 2012
10 before tip
Nuggets center Timofey Mozgov won’t start because of a back strain. Coach George Karl said it’s a 2-3 day injury. Kosta Koufos will start for Mozgov. Guard Rudy Fernandez will miss his second straight game due to a right Achilles strain. Forward DeMarre Carroll also won’t play because of a left hamstring injury.
Rookie Nikola Vucevic will make his first start for the 76ers. Vucevic will replace center Spencer Hawes, who has a left Achilles strain. "This is going to be a racehorse game. I don’t think he’ll be able to do it," Sixers coach Doug Collins said of Hawes. "We have to get him healthy." Vucevic is averaging 4.5 points and 13.4 minutes.
The Sixers will have guard/forward Evan Turner. He missed Monday’s win because of a right quad contusion.
Sixers swingman Andre Iguodala has Karl’s vote for the 2012 U.S. Olympic team. Iguodala was named one of 20 finalists for the team on Monday. "I would almost bet he makes it because he’s a guy who can fill many roles and he’s a defensive stopper."
The Sixers have the league’s second-best scoring defense, allowing just 86.2 points per game. Meanwhile, the Nuggets have the second-highest scoring offense, averaging 104.1 points per game.
Karl was encouraged by his team’s performance in a 105-95 victory at Milwaukee on Tuesday night. "We found some things that we hadn’t had on a consistent basis that we hope to have tonight," he said.
Patrick KB. Nugget - January 18, 2012
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