All-Star Isaiah Thomas, streaking Celtics pay visit to Pepsi Center

The All-Star break was just last weekend, but across the league teams are jockeying for playoff position with just under a two months to go until the NBA’s “second season” is set to tip off.

One of those team who will be playing come late April and possibly into May is the Boston Celtics who sit at the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference having won seven out of their last ten contests.

The Nuggets on the other hand are flirting with the eighth seed, just 5.5 games back and within striking distance with 27 games remaining. Denver generally stood pat at last Thursday’s trade deadline, dealing reserve guard Randy Foye to Oklahoma City for D.J. Augustin, Steve Novak and two second round picks (Novak was waived shortly after the trade was completed). The swap of backup guards, both with win shares per 48 minutes under one (.002 ws/48 for Foye and .069 ws/48 for Augustin according to BasketballReference.com), isn’t going to move the needle for Denver, but it gives them depth at the backup point guard position with Jameer Nelson still dealing with a left wrist injury.

Thomas trending up

It’s been truly a breakout season for the 5-foot-9 point guard who earned his first All-Star appearance of his five-year career, and did so by putting up averages of 21.6 points and 6.6 assists on 42.2 percent shooting from the field and 34.7 percent from three. Oddly enough Isaiah Thomas’ numbers this year are almost identical to his 2013-14 averages where he scored 20.3 points and dished out 6.3 assists assists per contest while shooting slightly better percentages from both the field and three.

Perhaps it was a move out of Sacramento and to the Eastern Conference and a major market in Boston that finally put him on the map. He’s the engine that makes Boston go as the Celtics are scoring seven points per 100 possessions more with him on the court this season, according to NBA.com. Emmanuel Mudiay’s size and wingspan could give Thomas problems, but it’s not like he’s never had to go against superior length before. After coaching against his former team in Sacramento on Friday, Malone gets to game-plan against another one of his former players in Thomas today.

Cracking the Celtics code

The Celtics are currently the fourth best defense in the league in terms of defensive rating but have slipped to 13th over their last ten games. They are one of just four teams (San Antonio, Indiana, Golden State) to hold their opponents under 100 points per 100 possessions and Brad Stevens has not only himself but Jae Crowder, Marcus Smart and Avery Bradley to thank for their defensive success.

Thomas, Bradley and Crowder all start, but Smart comes off the bench and can be a terror on the ball. Stevens has a plethora of different lineup options the versatility he’s presented with an takes full advantage of it.

Eyes on the prize

As a team, the Nuggets haven’t been shy to express their goals and aspirations for the season. Mudiay has made it known his goal is to make the playoffs, and Malone has echoed those thoughts as well. But by not making any significant moves at the deadline, we felt the front office’s influence that the goal of this season is to develop this roster.

I referenced on our BSN Nuggets podcast last week how the Utah Jazz became the league’s No. 1 defensive team after deadline Enes Kanter to the Thunder at last year’s trade deadline and inserting Rudy Gobert into the lineup. And while I don’t think we’ll see a spike in performance like Utah experienced last season, there’s still a lot to find out about this team.

Personally, I’m really excited about the growth Mudiay can experience over these last couple months of regular season action, and the maturing play of Nikola Jokic that hopefully doesn’t dwindle as the now 21-year-old approached the ever nearing rookie wall. If this season ends in a playoff berth, great. There can be value to a young team like this playing postseason basketball even if it’s a four-game exhibition against the Golden State Warriors — a team which they’ve actually played well this season. If the Nuggets fall off and drift into the lottery, that’s a fine option, too.

Lauvergne puts up big numbers in loss

Jokic didn’t exactly match up great at this stage in his career with DeMarcus Cousins on Friday night and Jusuf Nurkic found himself in foul trouble from the get-go too, so Malone turned to Joffrey Lauvergne for 25 minutes, mostly at the center spot against the Kings.

Lauvergne produced, there’s not doubt about that. The Frenchman finished with 22 points on 10-14 shooting and secured seven rebounds in his time on the floor. He was also the only Nuggets player besides Darrell Arthur to finish with a positive +/- (+3).

His performance adds an interesting dynamic to a big man situation which has been a hot-button issue all season. In my mind, while it’s great to have the depth Denver does up front, Lauvergne is nothing more than a third or fourth big man. He’s 24-years-old, three years Jokic and Nurkic’ senior and while I don’t think his performance will cut into Jokic and Nurkic’ playing time — nor should it — I wouldn’t be surprised if Malone and his staff are discussing their frontcourt options extensively.