It’s a battle between two of the West’s top teams, whose season series has been interesting. It’s currently tried at 1-1 and the road team won both times.
HOME TEAM: Denver Nuggets (38-16, 21-6 at home)
The Nuggets are winners of four straight games, with the most recent being the 127-120 come-from-behind win over the San Antonio Spurs. It was a great all-around effort as they had to climb out of a 23-point, third quarter deficit.
Jamal Murray has been playing well since coming back from injury. As the main catalyst of the team’s current streak, he’s averaging 28.3 points and 5.3 assists per game on 58.9-shooting in that stretch. We’ll see if he can keep it up as he’s only scoring 14 points on 39.3%-shooting against the Lakers this season.
The same goes for Nikola Jokic, who’s filling up the stat sheet over his last five games (28 PPG, 12.2 RPG, 9.8 APG, 1.6 SPG, 1.8 BPG, 61.5 FG %), but has only posted half of that in the past two meetings with the Lakers (15.5 PPG). Paul Millsap is the Denver big who’s having better success in the season series – 21 PPG on 57.1%-shooting.
What’s unquestionable is Denver leaning on its ever-reliable defense. The team is fourth in points allowed (106.4 PAPG) and has the fourth-best defensive rating during the streak.
ROAD TEAM: Los Angeles Lakers (40-12, 22-5 on the road)
The Lakers are showing some cracks in the armor as they are an iffy 6-4 in their last 10 games. What’s good, however, is that they are still owners of the best road record in the league and will be working with the momentum of a commanding win – they beat the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday, 125-100.
Like Nuggets, the Lakers are also a high-ranking defensive team. They are top six in points allowed and defensive rating, while also allowing the fewest rebounds per game.
LeBron James was rested in the 128-104 loss to the Nuggets back in December 23, so we might see him lead an aggressive attack. Anthony Davis tallied 32 points and 11 rebounds in that game, and he’s going to continue causing problems for the Nuggets defense.
The Lake Show’s two superstars are both scoring over 25 per game, with James also steadily leading the league in assists at 10.7 per game and Davis being one of the top shot blockers at 2.4 BPG.
Avery Bradley is the key man from the Lakers’ supporting cast right now. The defensive combo guard is scoring 15 per game over his last five outings.
PREDICTION:
With the Lakers showing lapses on defense lately, expect the Nuggets to capitalize at every turn. Murray and Jokic are feeling confident riding a four-game winning streak and should be able to flex at least some of it tomorrow. They win, 114-108.
