| 06 March 2009
Denver is coming off b2b with Portland that looked closer than the final score. This game provides us with some great match ups at all five positions depending on how they play the match ups.
Nene Vs. Okur.
Nene is coming back off an an injury and has looked decent with game of 16,20,12, and eight since. Nene is leading the league in shooting percentage 61.02 % and we should all remember his perfect game against a few months ago. Things are different now, the Jazz have their full roster back and this creates more open shots for Memo because of the double team on Boozer. Okur will pull Nene out of the paint so he should not get as many rebounds as he regularly does. The Nuggets may switch a quicker player on Memo to get out on him (Martin, Birdman) like the Rockets did with Scola, but that left Boozer to get all the rebounds (17) last game. Okur is coming of the greatest statistically three point shooting month in the history of the NBA. He hit over 60% from three and had more than 20 attempts which is the cut off point for the record. He also has been taken the ball to the whole stronger and more often during the winning streak. He has been very selective on the three ball intermixing it with pump fakes and drives to the basket making is game very hard to defend if you are another big in the NBA.
Memo will have 20 and 8 tonight and Nene should have around 16 and . I give the edge to the Utah Jazz in this match up by a little bit.
Carlos Boozer Vs. Kenyon Martin.
I have always hated Kenyon Martin. I think he has a bad attitude and is a thug. He was physically gifted coming out of the NBA but has never lived up to the hype because of his attitude and reoccurring Injuries. This matchup will be physical and fun to watch. Even more fun if Hapring comes of the bench to body up Martin. (Side Note- Matt Harpring will piss someone off tonight and the will get a tech). Boozer is coming of his best game in months and we should see another one tonight. Interestingly enough the Nuggets allow the fourth most offensive rebounds in the league, so Boozer should have a ton of rebounds tonight. I don't know if he will have 17 but he should get 13 or so. On the offensive side of this Matchup Boozer will dominate Martin and will have a little bit more problems if Birdman take that assignment.
Boozer should finish with 24-13 and Martin should finish with 16 -6 I think that Boozer dominates tonight.
Carmello Anthony Vs. Cj Miles.
I personally think that the Jazz should throw Brewer on Melo but I think this is the mathcup that we will see when CJ is in the game and then when Korver comes in Brewer will jump over on Melo. Melo will get his points no matter who is guarding him. I expect the Nuggets to post up Melo probably 8-9 times tonight getting it started early with Miles. Melo is a great post man and usually has a smaller guy on and commands a double team. When Klieza and Smtih come of the bench and they are hitting their shots this could cause some major problems for us, our rotations of the double team have been lackluster as of late especially on the weak side. Cj has not played well the past three games hopefully he can get out of his funk. Harpring will also see a few minutes on Melo tonight because of his sheer power and effort on the block however this leaves us at a disadvantage on Melo when he takes it to the hole, Matt can't keep up. Brewer is an overall better cover on Melo but Jerry probably won't play it this way.
Melo 26-7 tonight. Cj Miles 8-4, Korver 14-7, Hapring 8-3. It will probably take three of our players to equal the stats that Melo gets tonight. Denver has the advantage in this match up.
Ronnie Brewer Vs. Jr Smith.
This should be an even match up throughout the night. Brewer will own the baseline and Smith will be dropping three's. Both players are extremely athletic and we should see some highlights from both of them. I will say two or three dunks from Brewer and one dunk and 3 threes from Smith. Both of these guys are high energy guys that have their specialties and should exploit the other tonight.
Ronnie Brewer 18-6-4 Smith 18-4-5 this match up is the closest of all the match ups tonight.
Last but not least. D-will Vs. Billups.
Billups is coming of one the worst shooting games of his career 3-13 and will want to play well to make up for it. Billups isn't as fast as he used to be but is still very effective as a point guard and has lead the Nuggets to the top of the Division, for now. We all know what D-will can do and he will do it tonight on National Television and at home.
(Side note: Our date the other night was fantastic we went and saw He's Just Not That Into You and had some Coldstone Ice Cream. It may have been a sign but his wife made me sit in the back seat.)
D-Will 29-12 Billups 18-9 Utah Jazz have the upper hand in this match up but it will also be fun to watch.
Campbell's Soup Key's to the Game.
ESA vs. the Nuggets Mental Psyche
The Utah Jazz are doing everything they can t make this a loud "obnoxious"(Will get to the later ) crowd tonight.
ESA wins by becoming a Monster Arena and eating all the Nuggets players except for Jason Hart. The ESA doesn't want to have to get its stomach pumped from eating crap.
Benches-
The Jazz should at the least get 35 points 15 rebounds and 9 assist from their bench tonight which means AK, Milsap,Korver, Knight, I don't think that is to much to ask. Add that with our starters 72 or so we should be right on target for 113 or so.
We can't let their bench get more than 20 points let alone let Kleiza going off like last year.
National Television
"Creasy" will show up tonight.
Ric Bucher at his old back handed compliments towards the Utah Jazz. It is in Bill Simmons Podcast starting at Minute 37 or so its here.
Tim Leger had this to say "
1. Utah threatens the Lakers -- and the Spurs, too. When the Jazz are healthy, they compete consistently on defense, which is something you have to do against the Lakers, especially. You can't play lackadaisical defense against them because they are going to score 115-120 points on you. You have to come at them with more focus at that end of the floor.
Coach Jerry Sloan has tons of experience and, with all that he's been through in Utah, he will have the Jazz ready. I actually think Utah will catch Denver for first place in the Northwest Division and end up with the 3-seed in the West, thereby avoiding a potential rematch with the Lakers until the West finals." Espn.com Daily Dime.
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