Preview: The Denver Nuggets start a home-and-home against the Phoenix Suns

It’s a busy holiday week for the Denver Nuggets. Fresh off an overtime win last night, the team hopped on a plane back to Denver to face the Phoenix Suns tonight. Next, the Nuggets head down to Phoenix to take on the Suns in their arena as the nightcap for the Christmas Day slate before finishing the week with another back-to-back at home. The second B2B game, sandwiched between a long road trip and a Christmas Day game, may well be the hardest to win, and the opposition won’t make it any easier. Now in year two of the Devin Booker, Bradley Beal, Kevin Durant core, Phoenix is ​​still trying to find some consistency. At 14-13, they haven’t gotten off to the start they want, yet this team is still one of the most dangerous in the league with their scoring ability. The Nuggets need a focused effort (something often lacking on their road trip) to come out of the night with a W.

The essential

WHO: Denver Nuggets (15-11) vs Phoenix Suns (14-13)

When: 20:00 MST

Where: The can. Denver, CO

How to watch/listen: Denver Stiffs don’t condone piracy… unless it’s the romanticized 17th century kind. Altitude TV where available, NBA League Pass for those not in the Nuggets market, Altitude+, 92.5FM Altitude Radio. Throw in a touch of men’s only grey, little stilettos, a nice blazer and talk about how much the ball pops and you’re sure to be mistaken for Adam Mares and whisked straight to Altitude Studio (congratulations Adam!).

Rival Blog: The bright side of the sun

Matchups

Damage report*: Dario Saric – questionable (ankle), Vlatko Cancar – out (knee), DaRon Holmes II – out (achilles); Grayson Allen – Out (concussion), Bol Bol – Out (knee), Devin Booker – Out (groin), Collin Gillespie – Out (G-League), TyTy Washington Jr. – away (G-League). *The Nuggets injury report was not released at the time of writing

The three things

Things to watch out for: Aaron Gordon vs Kevin Durant

Devin Booker is out and Bradley Beal honestly hasn’t been a contributing factor to Phoenix’s wins lately. Durant remains by far the biggest threat to Phoenix. While in Brooklyn when Denver acquired Aaron Gordon, KD is exactly the type of player the Nuggets got Gordon to be: an elite scorer with the skill and size to overpower (or just shoot over) your typical wings. The recipe for beating the Suns isn’t necessarily stopping Durant, (the Pistons beat Phoenix the other night when KD scored 43), but it certainly goes a long way if you play quality basketball as well. The Nuggets need AG to stick with Durant tonight and force him to give up the ball. If they can do that, their chances of winning will be very high.

Things to remember: why is james jones so obsessed with us?

Jusuf Nurkic, Mason Plumlee, Monte Morris, Colin Gillespie, Bol Bol … anyone seeing a theme here? Suns GM James Jones seems to be all in on former Nuggets and quite frankly James, we’re just not that into you. Obviously, I’m being tongue-in-cheek here, but I think it’s funny how many reunions we’re getting tonight. Will Nikola Jokic try to clear out his former practice buddies in Nurkic and Plumlee? Will there be some intensity between Jamal Murray and Morris? Unfortunately no Bol Bol tonight as he is dealing with an injury and Gillespie is in the G-League, but still plenty of connections between the two rosters.

Things to bet on: Jamal Murray over 20.5 points (-110)

Jamal is playing better and looking more and more like his regular self, but the betting crowd hasn’t quite caught up. Last week I took Murray threes as our TTB and it cashed in with relative ease, now I’m staring at -110 for Jamal who only scored 21 points and it feels like Christmas came early. Murray has scored 20 or more in four straight games, and I know what you’re thinking. Coming off an OT B2B with travel, there’s no way Jamal is having another big night. Well, the last time that situation happened was in October when the Nuggets beat the Toronto Raptors in OT only to have to play the Brooklyn Nets in Brooklyn the next night…Jamal scored 24 points against the Nets.