Preview: The Nuggets hope to end their road trip with a win against the Pelicans

The Denver Nuggets are reeling from a blowout loss to the Portland Trail Blazers heading into New Orleans, where they face the Pelicans on Sunday. The Pelicans have five wins this year and have won just one game since their loss to the Nuggets on November 15th. They lost close games and lost games, boring games and exciting games, but they lost – a lot. But they’ve already beaten Denver once and can definitely do it again if Denver decides the defense is above them. Can the Nuggets put the whispers and trade rumors aside and focus on doing what they need with what they have?

The Nuggets road trip hasn’t given them any shine so far. They narrowly escaped Sacramento with a win, suffered a loss in Portland and now have a stretch of five games in seven nights ahead of them – a stretch they desperately need to start with a win against a team they should get along. But playing with desperation wasn’t commonplace in the first two months of the season, so hopefully Denver plans to stuff its fans’ stockings with well-executed victories instead of cash this holiday week.

The essentials

WHO: Denver Nuggets (14-11) vs. New Orleans Pelicans (5-24)

When: 5:00 p.m. MST

Where: Smoothie King Center, New Orleans LA

How to watch/listen: Denver Stiffs does not tolerate piracy. Altitude television when available. NBA League Pass for those not participating in the Nuggets market. Altitude 92.5 FM. Wear a collar and say you are there to perform an exorcism on the Nuggets to cure their habit of terrible losses.

Rivals Blog: Pelican debriefing

Injury report: Christian Braun – probable (back strain), Dario Saric – out (left ankle sprain), Vlatko Cancar – out (worst bad luck ever and also knee surgery), Daron Holmes II – out (Achilles); Daniel Theis – questionable (personal), Jose Alvarado Jr – out (left hamstring), Brandon Ingram – out (left ankle), Karlo Matkovic – out (back injury), Zion Williamson – out (left hamstring)

The three things

What you should pay attention to: Which Nuggets team will appear?

The Nuggets have been asserting themselves more in the first quarters of late, which has been a problem most of the year – but then they decided to take the next few quarters off, which definitely doesn’t solve the problem. Can Denver actually play hard for 48 minutes? Will they step up on defense and execute their rotations? Brandon Ingram absolutely destroyed them when the two teams met earlier this year, but he is now out injured. In theory, the Pelicans shouldn’t have the firepower necessary to keep up with the Nuggets in a shootout – but Denver tested that theory with several undermanned teams they didn’t want to play defense against and found out the hard way This is the case NBA: Everyone can have a good night if they let it.

If Denver comes in with the right mindset, they should be able to lock down the Pelicans early, but that has only happened a few times this year. New Orleans has only five wins this season, four of them at home – this is where they can actually cause problems. Hopefully the Nuggets, after embarrassing themselves in Portland after almost blowing the game in Sacramento, did half-assed things… but we won’t find out until tonight after tip-off. In this regard, they do not deserve the fans’ trust.

Here’s what you should remember: KYP – Know your staff

The Pelicans lost to the Knicks on Saturday night. They stand behind each other. Their legs aren’t fresh, which usually means they won’t actually fire Denver out of the gym. They’ll try to get past the rim and find easier ways to score, but transitions aren’t their thing. The Nuggets are in 5th place in the transition standings this year – the Pelicans are in 26th place. However, New Orleans actually has the second-best transition defense as they give up defensive rebounds (27th) to ensure they always have guys.

Denver can limit them to one possession by attacking the glass (which they need to focus on since the Pelicans rank 6th in offensive rebounding) and then Denver needs to push its offense. Sprinting forward in chaos is fun, but perhaps focus on execution, boxing out and valuing possessions in this game. The Pelicans won’t win the battle of execution if Denver limits their shots and drives offense through Nikola Jokic. But Denver needs to avoid getting cute and thinking about it too much. Know who you are playing against and beat them possession after possession. Keep an eye for detail and get the W before a very long week of basketball.

What to bet on: Jokic scores the first basket (+400)

I don’t normally do things like this, but if you want to set the tone, you should turn to your best player and he should be aggressive early. I have no problem attacking the Nuggets and doing what they were supposed to do in this game.