Nuggets go for two straight wins at home, host DeMar DeRozan, Raptors

[Elite_video_player id=”33″]

Regular Season Game No. 12 | Toronto Raptors (7-4) at Denver Nuggets (4-7)

Pepsi Center, Denver, Colorado | 7:00 PM MST | TV: Altitude

On the second night of a four-game homestand, the Denver Nuggets welcome the Toronto Raptors to Pepsi Center.

Here’s what to watch for as Denver looks four their fifth win of the year and second-straight at home:

Slowing down DeRozan

Multiple storylines have already dominated the NBA landscape this year but one of the more surprising early-season trends is the statistical leap taken by Raptors’ shooting guard DeMar DeRozan.

DeRozan enters Friday night’s game against the Nuggets as the NBA’s leading scorer at 33.3 points per game, roughly a 10-point jump from 23.5 points he averaged in 2015-16. One reason for his sudden spike in scoring is that DeRozan is attempting about six more shots per game than he did last year, is shooting a blistering 50.6 percent from the field and 49.6 percent from what NBA.com defines as “mid-range,” where DeRozan does most of his damage.

Even though the 27-year-old is shooting 4-7 on corner threes, DeRozan isn’t a threat from deep. DeRozan is just 6-21 collectively from 3-point range, but he doesn’t need to hit from distance to be efficient on offense if he keeps shooting the ball well enough from within the arc.

It will be difficult for Denver to limit DeRozan, especially with Gary Harris still sidelined with a foot injury, but new signee Alonzo Gee could spend significant time on the league’s leading scorer. The Nuggets signed Gee Tuesday and he played four minutes Wednesday in the Nuggets’ 120-104 win over the Phoenix Suns and was matched up on Devin Booker when on the court. It wouldn’t be surprising if Michael Malone deploys the defensively competent Gee on DeRozan for significant stretches after Emmanuel Mudiay likely begins the game guarding the talented two-guard.

Getting Gallinari going

Recently, Denver made a concerted effort to get Danilo Gallinari going, who’s shooting 1.5 fewer shots and about 2.5 less free throws per game than he did last season. That effort started Wednesday against Phoenix when Gallinari got up 13 shots and went to the line nine times after shooting just two free throws in Portland three nights earlier.

With Mudiay looking to play more conservative and in control as he did against the Suns and Jusuf Nurkic‘s production dropping as his minutes decrease, Gallinari should evolve into the focal point of the offense. Gallinari is now back in the league’s top-10 in isolation frequency with 19.2 percent of his possessions used on offense coming via ISO’s.

In Denver’s last three games, Gallinari has looked more and more like his old self. He’s averaging 18.3 points on 44.4 percent shooting and 46.2 percent from three, and 5.2 rebounds per game, but the Nuggets are still roughly three points per 100 possessions worse on offense with Gallinari on the floor.

Denver desperately wants to reach the playoffs this season and needs Gallinari to be playing at his best in order for the Nuggets to do so. The sooner Gallinari gets going, the sooner Denver’s offense, which currently sits at the 20th-most efficient in the league, makes it’s way into the top half of the NBA.