Last week, the story was about Denver being in the driver’s seat with only 20 or so games to go, but with Monday night’s heartbreaking loss to the Houston Rockets, Denver finds themselves in an awkward predicament, they are still in the eighth spot, but their lead is far from comfortable.
The Portland Trail Blazers have surged to enter the equation, and now look as if they’ll take over the eighth spot in the Western Conference playoff race. Only one game out of eighth, Portland has one of the easiest schedules remaining and the Denver Nuggets have unarguably one of the most difficult paths, starting with welcoming the defending champs to the Pepsi Center on Wednesday.
Each game is essentially a playoff game, as Denver needs every single win that they can get. Here’s three ways I feel the Nuggets can beat the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Hope that LeBron James takes Adam Silver’s memo as a threat, decides not to play—Force LeBron James to take jump shots
As we all know, LeBron James is good at basketball. And he’s at his strongest when he is scoring in the paint rather than taking the outside jump shot. Very few teams have been able to force him out of the paint and get him to settle for jump shots.
For Denver to win, LeBron has to get away from what he’s most comfortable at and that’s penetrating the defense and either scoring or creating for others. According to NBA.com this season, James is shooting 38.8 percent from the three-point line, yet his overall field goal percentage is at 54.3, a big difference.
The stats speak for themselves, if the Nuggets can limit LeBron’s productivity in the paint and force him to take tough outside shots; they have a chance at dethroning the king—at least for one night.
Pray for a snowstorm and hope NBA makes team battle it out in rock, paper, scissors; in which, Denver chooses rock—Get all that you can out of the bench unit
The Denver Nuggets hope to get back Danilo Gallinari and/or Wilson Chandler for Wednesday’s game when they take on the Cavaliers. While it doesn’t guarantee a win, it does give the Nuggets a better chance, adding to their depth.
If ANY team in the NBA knows anything about depth, it is the Cleveland Cavaliers as they boast a big 3 of Kyrie Irving, LeBron James and Kevin Love, with players like J.R. Smith & Tristan Thompson filling out their starting lineup; a pretty strong lineup and one Denver doesn’t surpass off pure numbers.
The way to make a move and find an advantage on the Cavs is through their bench unit, Denver matches up well in that aspect. With hopefully getting Wilson Chandler back, it adds to a strong bench unit of Chandler, Kenneth Faried and/or Mason Plumlee, Will Barton, Juancho Hernangomez and Jamal Murray.
If the starters can give some good minutes in which they match the starters of the Cavs, the Nuggets find themselves with the advantage on the 2nd unit.
LeBron James has to skip game to work in pizza parlor. Hope to beat them inside
It wasn’t too long ago that LeBron James was endorsed by McDonald’s, but he said goodbye to open up a pizza business, one of the fastest growing chains in the country. We KNOW he didn’t eat anything at McDonald’s, but EVERYONE loves pizza.
Now that I think about it, it’s probably unlikely that he skips a game to work in a pizza parlor. So another tactic must be found. When you look at the way that the Cavaliers are constructed, the one thing they’re lacking is inside presence.
Teams look to attack Cleveland two ways: from the point guard position, as Kyrie Irving isn’t much of a defender or beating them down low. The Nuggets have to get Plumlee, Faried and Jokic going if they want to have a chance against Cleveland.
In their first matchup, Cleveland won 125-109 but it was also Denver’s third game in four days as they just didn’t have the legs to mount a serious comeback, but the Nuggets should be well rested with a day in between their game. Jokic had himself a good game as he finished with 27 points and 13 rebounds, they hope to get more of that this game with the addition of Plumlee as well, inside presence should be the key.
