After trading away Enes Kanter at least year’s trade deadline, the Utah Jazz, behind the front court duo of Rudy Gobert and Derrick Favors, quickly and rapidly ascended to the league’s most dominant defense. From the deadline on, the Jazz boasted the league’s best defensive rating (points allowed per 100 possessions), and it wasn’t even close. Utah’s 94.8 DefRtg through the last 29 games of the regular season was more than four points better than the 98.9 Defrtg the Spurs achieved, the second highest mark behind the Jazz.

Utah Jazz

Through four games this season, Utah is proving that exceptional defensive showing was no fluke. The Jazz, who are surrendering just 92.1 points per 100 possessions this year are currently tied with the Golden State Warriors as the best defense in the league and before last night’s loss in Portland, Utah’s defense ranked No. 1. Rudy Gobert is one of the front runners for Defensive Player of the Year, Derrick Favors is finally getting the recognition he deserves after holding the “most underrated player in the league” title for the past year or so and Utah’s length on the wing forms a tight-knit contingent that locks you down and frustrates you over the course of 48 minutes.

On offense the Jazz are spearheaded by Gordon Hayward, who has struggled out of the gates shooting just 35.2 percent from the field and averaging 13.8 points per game, down from the 19.3 mark he posted last season. On the starting unit he’s flanked by second year wing Rodney Hood, who has also struggled shooting the ball from deep and distributor Raul Neto, a pass-first point guard who was inserted into the lineup after playing the last couple years abroad in Spain.

Utah fills out the rest of their roster with instant offense scorers like Trey Burke and Alec Burks who scored 21 and 17 points respectively last night in Portland and complimentary big men in Joe Ingles and Trevor Booker who are gritty competitors who handle the dirty work for the Jazz. Rookie Trey Lyles has shown potential as the team’s stretch four of the future and Elijah Millsap, brother of Paul, adds to the impressive length and versatility that this Utah roster boasts.

The Jazz, coming to Denver on the second half of a back to back will undoubtably try to slow the Nuggets pace and fast breaking attack which was on full display against the Lakers earlier this week. Utah plays at the league’s slowest pace, averaging just 94.53 possessions per 48 minutes, while Denver’s 100.73 possessions per game is leaning more towards the league average.

Injury Report:

Derrick Favors – QUESTIONABLE (flu-like symptoms)

Probable Starting Lineups

Denver Nuggets

Injury Report:

Jusuf Nurkic – OUT (rehabbing from patella tendon surgery in his left knee)

Wilson Chandler – OUT (right hip strain)

Joffrey Luvergne – OUT (low back strain)

Nikola Jokic – QUESTIONABLE (low back strain)

Kenneth Faried – PROBABLE (low back soreness)

Pace will be key

The Nuggets will surely try to combat Utah’s defensive prowess with an up-tempo, high possession attack to tire out a Jazz squad who got run out of the gym last night in Portland.

“If you get caught playing a half court mano-a-mano slugfest, advantage Utah,” said head coach Michael Malone after shoot around this morning. “That’s how they want to play. Quin [Snyder] has done a great job getting them to buy in to the defensive end of the floor. They have great length at the rim, Rudy Gobert covers up for a lot of mistakes – tremendous presence at the rim. So, we have to find a way to create tempo off of our defense and rebounding. Look to attack in transition and if we can make it a game where we’re playing with pace and tempo, that’s definitely in our advantage.”

Rookie point guard Emmanuel Mudiay showed some of the aggressiveness and attacking mentality he thrived on during Denver’s opening night win in Houston, but got away from when the Nuggets dropped their next two against Minnesota and Oklahoma City. Mudiay was aggressive against the Lakers and settled for less of those inefficient step back jumpers we saw agains the Timberwolves and more drives to the rim.

Against a team like Utah who’s goal is to slow you down and control the pace of the game, Denver should place a premium on playing a game with a high number of possessions. That responsibility will be stressed and hammered home by Malone pregame, but will be on the shoulders of Mudiay, Jameer Nelson and the rest of Denver’s ball handlers to execute once the ball is tipped.

“Any time you have a team coming in here to the altitude off a back-to-back — they’re used to playing at altitude as well — but regardless of the fact that they played last night, we have to play with much greater pace and energy than we did against Minnesota. That loss was unacceptable in regards to how we played,” said Malone. “Tonight, regardless that they played last night, we want to attack, push pace and get them on their heels as much as possible. When they are able to set their feet and establish that half court defense, they have proven they are a very good defensive team.”

Kenneth Faried, who had his best game of the year against the Lakers, scoring 28 points and grabbing 15 rebounds in 40 minutes will also be a huge factor in how fast this game is played. If the Manimal can grab rebounds and rim-run with effectiveness like he did in Los Angeles, the Nuggets should be able to get out and be effective in transition.

Injuries still abundant 

Denver’s frontcourt has been decimated with injuries early this season and with Nurkic out for the foreseeable future, Lauvergne unavailable and Jokic questionable, Hickson should get his second straight start at center.

Hickson performed admirably in his first start of the season in Los Angeles totaling 17 points and 7 rebounds on 8-9 shooting in just 25 minutes. Granted it was agains the Lakers, a team which enjoys the league’s worst defense, but Hickson did show he was ready to play after fading out of the rotation over the course of the Nuggets preseason slate.

Jokic practiced Wednesday and looked fluid and loose while going through a series of shooting exercises. Malone said at shoot around that Jokic should be available for the game, but we’ll have to wait and see if he gets any minutes.

Nuggets make a roster move

Earlier this morning, the Nuggets signed forward Kostas Papanikolaou, a 25-year-old who Denver had originally acquired from the Rockets in the Ty Lawson trade, but waived prior to the preseason. Denver waived guard Erick Green in order to make room for Papanikolaou who appeared in 43 games for the Rockets last season, averaging 4.2 points and 2.0 assists in just over 18 minutes per game.

Papanikolaou came to Denver from Houston already on a $4.8 million contract which was non-guaranteed to him this year, but now is resigned to a partially guaranteed one-year contract, with a team option for next season, according to EuroHoops.net.

#NBA Pap’s contract with @Nuggets will become fully guaranteed on January, includes a team option for next season https://t.co/09JdbxUmjy

— Eurohoops.net (@Eurohoopsnet) November 5, 2015

The signing of Papanikolaou was surprising and seemingly came out of no where, but may have to do with the early injuries Denver has endured. While the Greek national isn’t a big man by trade, he can spend time at the stretch four position in smallball lineups, which Malone may go to more often with starting center Lauvergne still sidelined.