Denver Nuggets look to discover home court advantage vs Damian Lillard, Trail Blazers

Coming off a 119-104 moral victory of sorts in Golden State, if you believe in those sort of things, the Denver Nuggets return home for the first of a three-game home-stand when they play host to the Portland Trail Blazers tonight at Pepsi Center.

After trailing 74-44 at the half, the Nuggets showed some fight in Oracle’s hostile environment last week, outscoring the Warriors 60-45 in the second half and 29-20 in the fourth quarter on the way to their fourth defeat of the young season.

“I was thrilled with our second half and I told our team at halftime, forget wining and losing, were down by 30-something points, have pride. I hated how we played in that first half and when things went south, we roll over,” Malone said at practice on Sunday. “The challenge to them at halftime was come out, win the third quarter, win the fourth quarter so we can walk out of here with some pride and little bit of progress saying, ‘Okay, we played the right way, offensively and defensively.'”

Malone then elaborated on the encouraging second half performance in Golden State.

“The second half we outscored them 60-45 and only gave up three second chance points, had 15 assists, the ball moved, we played for each other, so I loved how we played and I told them that’s who we have to be for 48 minutes,” Malone continued. “We’ve done it for two quarters, three quarters. At home we haven’t done it for four quarters yet and we have three home games this week. Starting [tonight] we have to find a way to play like we did in the second half for all four quarters.”

Hopefully Denver can carry and apply that momentum into tonight’s contest considering how they have performed in their two home games this season, especially in the second half and fourth quarters of those games.  In the Nuggets home opener, the Minnesota Timberwolves outscored Denver 46-39, limiting the Nuggets to 30.2 percent shooting in the second half, while in the following home game against the Jazz, Utah outscored Denver 56-42 in the second half and 31-20 in the fourth quarter. The Nuggets, now 0-2 at home, are desperate to regain the home-court advantage which has been absent over the last two seasons.

Malone is conscious of and concerned with the Nuggets struggles at home, especially with the growing trend that this team has a hard time getting up for the not-so-sexy opponents.

“Minnesota was by far the worst example of it and then the second half against Utah you saw that and I don’t know if it’s because there’s no home court crowd, there’s no advantage, it’s just very dead in there,” Malone said. “I’m not sure what it is. Those are all excuses. We have to find a way to motivate ourselves, to come out and play energized, passionate, enthusiastic basketball for 48 minutes and if we don’t do it, we’ll continue to see the same result over and over.”

Gallinari as the No. 1 option

For the Nuggets, Danilo Gallinari is coming off a 26 point outing in Golden State on 7-16 shooting and is pouring in a team-high 18.7 points per game on the season. After the Ty Lawson trade, Gallinari instantly became Denver’s No. 1 option and it seems he’s taking on that role slowly but surely. At times this season, Gallinari has been the leader on offense – penetrating and getting to the line almost at will. While at other times, he’s seemed passive and had no issue deferring when the Nuggets found themselves in a bind for a bucket. After shooting just 34 percent from the field over his first three games, the versatile 6-foot-10 swingman has seen his shot go down more consistently as of late. Gallinari’s shot 51 percent from the field over his last three games bringing his season average up to 42 percent, the highest since his rookie season where he only saw time in 28 games.

Going small

Malone opted to start small against the Warriors, going with a lineup that featured Emmanuel Mudiay, Gary Harris, Will Barton, Gallinari, and Kenneth Faried. Prior to that game, those five hadn’t spent much time on the floor together this season. The result wasn’t great as Golden State raced out to 40-23 first quarter advantage, which Denver could not recover from.

That starting lineup struggled putting the clamps on a potent Golden State attack, allowing the Warriors to shoot 55 percent from the field in the 19 minutes they were on the floor together. On offense, that unit held it’s own, but its’ struggles were evident throughout the game. Playing Mudiay and Harris together in the backcourt already provides some spacing issues, with neither guard demanding much respect from the defense; despite Mudiay shooting 37.5 percent from 3-point range to start the season, a number that will most-likely regress. Combine that duo with  Barton, a career sub-30 percent shooter from deep and Kenneth Faried, a frontcourt presence that seldom leaves the painted area and there’s simply not much room for the offense to operate in the half court. Gallinari, who’s historically the Nuggets best shooter and is hitting threes at a 37 percent clip this year, (his best mark since his rookie season) makes the defense respect him beyond the 3-point line, but him alone isn’t going to space the floor and compensate for who he’s playing with.

At just 33 percent, the Nuggets 3-point percentage is already sliding towards the bottom tier across the league and can be partially blames for their spacing struggles. Shooting is a theme that’s plagued this team for the past two seasons now and an issue which frequently stunts Denver’s offense for long stretches of time. It will be interesting to see what lineup Malone throws out there to matchup with a Blazers’ starting five that’s known to cause a matchup issue or two.

Barton meets his former team

Will Barton, who was acquired from Portland in last year’s Arron Afflalo trade (Afflalo signed with the Knicks if the offseason) spent his first two-and-a-half years with the Trail Blazers and will surely be amped up to play his former team. Barton flourished in his first start of the season in Golden State where he scored a season high 19 points on 7-16 shooting and eight rebounds and five assists in 39 minutes. I don’t see Barton sticking in the starting lineup, but he should continue to see around 25 minutes a night.

Nikola Jokic is fully healthy

For the first time in nearly a week, Jokic is fully healthy and off the injury report just in time for a Portland team he matches up with favorably. Meyers Leonard presents an interesting matchup at either the power forward of center positions as a stretch big who resides on the perimeter and flourishes in space off of pick-and-pops. Jokic, who had a rough time against the physicality of Utah’s front line and the quickness of Golden State’s versatile bigs, could sneak into the starting lineup and at least play upwards of 20-25 minutes in what could be a favorable matchup for the 20-year-old.

Injury Report

Joffrey Luvergne – Low back strain, Questionable

Wilson Chandler – Right hip strain, Out

Jusuf Nurkic – Left patellar tendon repair, Out

Probable Starting Lineups

Portland Trail Blazers

Portland is coming into Denver on the second half of a back-to-back, playing last night in Detroit, where they fell 120-103. It was a fascinating game in the Motor City, as Reggie Jackson scored 40 points (23 in the fourth) and Andre Drummond dominated the paint throughout the night, registering 29 points and 27 rebounds. The Trail Blazers are 1-1 playing on zero days rest, but as we found at versus Utah, that doesn’t automatically translate into success for this Nuggets team.

Mudiay and Harris will be tasked with putting the clamps down on the backcourt duo of Lillard and C.J. McCollum, who together form the highest scoring backcourt in the league this year at 27.1 and 21.6 points per game respectively. It’s going to be key to stay attached to Portland’s guards who attempt the fourth most 3-pointers per game and convert on the fourth highest percentage.

On the interior, Leonard and Mason Plumlee form a duo not quite as imposing as Denver saw with Utah or Golden State and one the Nuggets should be able to match up well with. Jokic can bang with either of Portland’s starting bigs, and Faried has the athleticism and motor to get out and outrun and out-motor either one. Denver should have no problem scoring on the interior against a Blazers team which only holds opponents to about a league average 101.6 point per 100 possessions, similar to Denver’s defensive efficiency.

It’s the start of a big three game homestead for the Nuggets and one where they can establish that valuable home-court advantage that’s been severely lacking the last couple years. It should be an exciting, up-and-down contest tonight at Pepsi Center.