Happy 2025 Denver Nuggets fans!

Here’s to a great year for the Nuggets, who are figuring some things out in the last few weeks. New Year’s Resolution for the team has to be to improve defensively at some point. Denver’s up to fourth in Offensive Rating on Cleaning the Glass so far this year, but they’re down to 20th in Defensive Rating. That isn’t going to get it done when the going gets rough. Fortunately, that rough going is also a ways away.

For now, let’s delve into the Atlanta Hawks matchup, the first game of 2025:

Denver Nuggets vs Atlanta Hawks

Projected Starting Lineups

Denver: Russell Westbrook, Jamal Murray, Christian Braun, Michael Porter Jr., Nikola Jokic

Atlanta:Trae Young, Dyson Daniels, Zaccharie Risacher, Jalen Johnson, Clint Capela

Key Bench Players

Denver: Julian Strawther, Peyton Watson, Hunter Tyson, DeAndre Jordan

Atlanta:Garrison Mathews, Vit Krejci, Bogdan Bogdanovic, De’Andre Hunter, Onyeka Okongwu

Notable Injuries

Denver: Aaron Gordon – OUT, Vlatko Cancar – OUT, DaRon Holmes II – OUT

Atlanta: Bogdan Bogdanovic – QUESTIONABLE, Dyson Daniels – QUESTIONABLE, Larry Nance Jr. – OUT, Kobe Bufkin – OUT

Key for the Nuggets – Diversion

The Nuggets look to have turned a bit of a corner of late. They’re 7-3 in their last 10 games. Jamal Murray is back on track. Russell Westbrook is filling in nicely for Aaron Gordon. There’s potential for them to go on a nice, long win streak.

Every time I’ve said that (or thought that) so far this season, they’ve taken a step back, diverting from what they’ve done well and going back to bad habits formed so far this season.

Everyone celebrated New Year’s last night, so expecting a perfectly focused game tonight would be ludicrous. Whichever team can focus up and lock in enough to make the necessary plays will win tonight. It won’t be about shooting. It will be about playing hard, avoiding mistakes, and being willing to do the things that help a team win games over and over again.

Important Matchup – Trae Young vs Russell Westbrook

Last time these two teams played, the Nuggets were coming off of a loss to the Washington Wizards. That may have inspired extra effort across the board, but Russell Westbrook didn’t need more incentive to match up with Trae Young. He did a great job against the Hawks point guard a few weeks ago.

Young certainly remembers that and will want to do what he can to impact the game as a scorer more than he did (just 15 points on 13 shots and two free throw attempts). I expect Young to hunt shots for himself. With Nikola Jokic playing at the level of the screen often, that will make scoring more difficult for Trae. He will have Jalen Johnson as a pressure release valve this time, and that could make all the difference in short roll passing/scoring.

On the other end, Westbrook just had a perfect triple-double. If Dyson Daniels plays, he will get the Jamal Murray assignment. That may leave Young on Westbrook, who should drive as often as possible and force the defense to adjust.

Number of the Day – 48

That’s the number of points Nikola Jokic had in the last matchup against these two teams. The Nuggets offense wasn’t in a good place for a while, so Jokic took on a heavy burden as a volume scorer on that road trip. Now, with Murray back, Porter playing well, and Westbrook finding opportunities, I doubt Jokic feels he has to put up 48 again for the Nuggets to win.

Then again, Jokic has been more aggressive than ever as a scorer with Westbrook on the floor (32.9% Usage with Russ ON, 27.4% Usage with Russ OFF). It feels like Russ is trying his best to get Jokic the ball as often as possible in scoring situations. Westbrook started for the last Hawks game, but that was with Murray out. Let’s see what he and Jokic do in this Hawks game.

Nugget who should have a good game: Michael Porter

Porter gets to play against his buddy Trae Young, but more importantly, Dyson Daniels will probably guard Jamal Murray and not him. Jalen Johnson and Zaccharie Risacher will probably split the MPJ assignment, while De’Andre Hunter will have his own opportunities. Johnson is a good defender, and Risacher tries hard, but Porter shot 12-of-17 the last time he faced the Hawks. I don’t expect that to change very much, even if Johnson guards him more than Risacher.