Nuggets look to slow Greek Freak, regain eighth seed against the Bucks

The Denver Nuggets, desperate for a win before a Saturday night back-to-back matchup in San Antonio, will take on the struggling Milwaukee Bucks, who have lost four straight games. After Denver’s most recent loss, they’ve fallen to ninth in the Western Conference and are currently on the outside looking into the playoffs. They’ll need a win against the Bucks to keep pace with Portland.

Regular season game No. 49 | Denver Nuggets (21-27) vs Milwaukee Bucks (21-27)

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

Giannis Antetokounmpo

It has been well documented that on defense the Nuggets are unable to keep many perimeter players in front of them, it has been a focal point of Michael Malone and his staff as of late.

Now they have to deal with Giannis Antetokounmpo.

With Danilo Gallinari out versus the Bucks with a groin strain, Wilson Chandler may be tasked with slowing down Antetokounmpo. While Chandler has been a solid defender over his career, he’s struggled to find consistency on that end of the floor as of late, posting a 113 defensive rating this year, tied for his career worst. Chandler will need to be locked in and focused if he hopes to check Antetokounmpo.

Darrell Arthur is another player that may find himself defending Antetokounmpo. Arthur is the Nuggets’ smartest defender and when you talk about a player that will compete for every single play, it’s Arthur that embodies that philosophy.

Playing through trade rumors

With the Nuggets reportedly quietly gauging the value of packaging Emmanuel Mudiay with a combination of picks and Chandler wanting out of Denver, there is a lot of noise outside of basketball inside Pepsi Center. Gallinari, Will Barton, Jusuf Nurkic, and Jameer Nelson all have had their names linked in trade rumors as well. Regardless of validity, this is a distraction that can be difficult to contend with.

This Nuggets roster has not had to play through adversity of that variety before and will have to find a way to eliminate the outside noise and play a solid 48 minutes of basketball to come away with a victory. If they show up rattled and unprepared it could be a long night for the Nuggets.

Footnotes

Danilo Gallinari will be out after sustaining a groin strain in the third quarter against the Grizzlies. He went through an MRI Thursday that came up negative and is expected back “soon,” according to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical.

With Gallinari out, Chandler should step into the starting lineup. Nikola Jokic has been upgraded to questionable and looks like he has a good chance of playing against the Bucks.