Denver Nuggets on the road again against Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas Mavericks

The Nuggets will do their best to duplicate their defensive performance from Wednesday night’s 87-81 win over the Clippers, tonight against the struggling Mavericks in Dallas. The Mavs have have stumbled to a 2-6 record in February and now sit in 7th place in the Western Conference, just a game ahead of the Utah Jazz and 1.5 ahead of the Houston Rockets.

The Nuggets had their first promising performance post-All-Star break, holding the Clippers to just 81 points and doubling their point total in the paint (44-22), so they will look to build on that against another potential playoff team in the West and another future-hall-of-famer in Dirk Nowitzki.

Dirk in February

While Dirk Nowitzki is coming off of a vintage performance on Wednesday against the Thunder, scoring 33 points on 10-16 shooting, including 2-4 from deep, 11-12 from the line, 6 rebounds and 2 steals, he is clearly showing signs of age. In the month of February, that game was one of only two in which he scored more than 18 points and one of just three in which he has shot better than 43 percent from the field.

He has scored in double figures in every game during the month, but hasn’t had double figures in rebounds since January 18th against the Boston Celtics has has only brought down 10 or more boards six times on the season. There’s no question that Dirk can still take over any given game, but his days of consistent dominance are undoubtedly in the past.

Always good to see McGee

He may not see the floor, but you’ve gotta love JaVale McGee as a Nuggets fan. Sure it cost us a first-round draft pick to get rid of his contract, but he was always entertaining… whether in the lows:

Or the highs:

Pick Swap Sweetness

The Nuggets currently sit a half game behind the New York Knicks in the standings, but FiveThirtyEight’s projections currently have them finishing two games ahead of New York in the final standings. The ability to swap picks with the Knicks has been a great reason to cheer on the Nuggets wins (and Knicks losses), without having to worry about the potential of giving up ground in the upcoming draft in which the Nuggets would currently hold the sixth pick. The Nuggets’ trade of Carmelo Anthony is truly the gift that keeps on giving.

Nuggets of Interest

• Since his trade deadline acquisition, DJ Augustin has seen consistent minutes at the point during crunch time. He gave way eventually to Emmanuel Mudiay, who hit two clutch free-throws to seal the deal on Wendesday night, but it is clear that Malone trusts the veteran ball handler to close out games. Augustin also has shown a knack for finding cutters for easy dunks and layups near the hoop, reminiscent of the Andre Miller days.
• Speaking of curious crunch time minutes, Kenneth Faried was conspicuously absent from the court during the fourth quarter against the Clippers on Wednesday. There’s no doubt he was a key player in positioning the Nuggets for victory as he was the most effective and energetic player on the court to close the second and open the third quarters. But for some reason he didn’t get off the bench in the fourth quarter. It will be interesting to see if Faried makes any appearances late in the game if it’s a close one in Dallas.
• Mudiay managed to shoot just 1-12 from the field on Wednesday against Chris Paul‘s notoriously relentless defense, though a majority of those misses were on wide open jumpers. Deron Williams won’t provide even a fraction of the amount of defensive pressure as Paul, so it will be a good opportunity for a bounce-back from the Nuggets’ rookie point guard on Friday night.