Nikola Jokic, Denver Nuggets look to build on momentum in Utah against Jazz

The Denver Nuggets take on the Jazz in Utah at Vivint Smart Home Arena on Wednesday night in a matchup of two Western Conference rosters full of promising, young players. Raul Neto and Rodney Hood will face Emmanuel Mudiay and Gary Harris in the battle of the backcourts, and Nikola Jokic will look to build on his breakout performance against the Toronto Raptors on Monday night in Denver.

Settling on a Rotation

Barring a last minutes change of plans, Wednesday night will mark the sixth straight game that the Nuggets tip off with Mudiay, Harris, Gallo, Faried and Jokic on the court. That lineup will have started nine of the last 10 games as well and given the results, should expect to start for the foreseeable future. According to basketball reference, that lineup has also logged the most minutes on the court this season and to give you a sense of how scattered the Nuggets lineups have been, the lineup with the second most minutes on the court includes J.J. Hickson in place of Jokic. Hickson has seen the court for just under 12 minutes total since December 8th over two appearances.

The setback with Jameer Nelson’s wrist keeps head coach Michael Malone from getting a look at his full stable of players, but he has still managed to start to settle into a rotation over the course of the last couple of weeks. In the last five games, the players, outside of the starting five, who have seen significant minutes are Will Barton, Darrell Arthur, Randy Foye/Jameer Nelson. A wing, a big and a ball handler. Jusuf Nurkic has also increased his conditioning and effectiveness to see at least 15 minutes in the last three games. For the first time all season, Malone has a solid nine-man rotation in place, and that can only help going into the all-star break.

The Joker’s Done Joking

Nikola Jokic was a nice, well-kept secret for Nuggets fans this season. The diehards were tracking his run to become the MVP of the Adriatic League last year, but we’ve all seen heralded European players fail to translate their game to the NBA, or at least take a while to adjust. The adjustment period is clear overly for Jokic, who, despite a number of solid games early in the season, has flown largely under the radar. His 27 point, 14 rebound, 4 assist performance on Monday night has him right back on the radar and into Rookie of the Year discussions.

Jokic saw 30 minutes of court time and would certainly have seen more if the game were closer. In the five games this year where the Joker has been on the court for at least 30 minutes, he’s averaging 19.6 points on 61 percent shooting, 10.4 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 1.8 steals and 1.4 blocks. I’ll be surprised if Jokic isn’t near 30 minutes on a nightly basis from this point forward (point forward, hmmm…), so it will be interesting to see if he can keep those numbers up, or even improve on them down the stretch for the Nuggets.

Jazz Rising

The Utah Jazz have been on the verge of jumping into the Western Conference playoff picture for a couple of seasons now, and this looks like the year it will finally happen. They have won four of their last five games and currently sit in the ninth place in the West, just percentage points behind the Portland Trail Blazers and two games behind the Houston Rockets.

Key to the success of the Jazz is Gordon Hayward, who led the team in points, rebounds and assists (27, 12 and 7) in their 105-96 victory over the Chicago Bulls on Monday night. The emergence of Rodney Hood at shooting guard has helped the Jazz raise their game of late as he’s been scoring 19 points per game on 45 percent shooting, including three 3-pointers per game (on nearly 47 percent shooting) in 2016.

Injury Watch

Nuggets – Wilson Chandler, Jameer Nelson (wrist) and Darrell Arthur (quad) are out

Jazz – Dante Exum and Alec Burks are out

Three Nuggets of Interest

1. Will Gary Harris be able to cool down the hot Rodney Hood? Hood has the size advantage at 6-foot-8, but Harris has been hot of late, tipping passes and getting steals against a variety of talented guards.
2. Will the Nuggets find success against Favors and Gobert? The Jazz frontcourt duo has caused problems for the Nuggets in the past, so once again, rebounding and finishing at the rim will be paramount.
3. Who scores more Gallo or Gordon? Danilo Gallinari and Gordon Hayward have similar games, so this one could come down to which of these two star players is able to score more points. Related, and potentially more important, is which player is able to put in more effort to defend the other.