These two teams faced off at the Smoothie King Center back on Nov. 17th. The Denver Nuggets blew the doors off the New Orleans Pelicans by a score of 115-98. But in that game, rising star Anthony Davis played just six minutes before having to leave the contest after sustaining a shoulder injury that would sideline him the next night as well vs. Oklahoma City.

Davis’ Pelicans have been just as injured as the Nuggets this season. Good news for NOLA is the health of point guard Jrue Holiday, he has been playing more recently after coming into the season on a minutes restriction. It got so bad for the Pelicans that they briefly signed guard Nate Robinson, but waived him after just two games with the team.

Head coach Alvin Gentry has been relying heavily on Davis, as the 22 year-old is averaging nearly 40 minutes a game in December and he’s responded by putting up 21.6 points, 11.6 rebounds and 3.1 blocks. On the season Davis is averaging 23 points, 10.9 rebound and 2.7 blocks – he’s consistent.

Nuggets healing up: 

Denver will likely be without rookie Emmanuel Mudiay, who is still rehabbing his sprained right ankle and is listed as questionable for tonight’s contest. In Mudiay’s absence, Jameer Nelson has been filling in admirably – a role he is used to after starting 588 of his career 738 games.

Jusuf Nurkic is getting closer-and-closer to a return after participating in his first shoot around of the season in Utah. In the Bosnian Beast’s absence, head coach Michael Malone has been trying every possible combination to find success in the middle for Denver. It’s no secret that Nikola Jokic has surpassed early expectations and has really shown flashes of brilliance this season, along with some growing pains.

Denver’s big men offer Malone endless possibilities: 

After scoring 8.0 points per game in November, Jokic is averaging 8.6 points in December and has seen his rebounds rise a bit from 5.1 to 5.6 over the same timeframe. His graceful play will soon be a nice contrast from Nurkic’s physical style and will give Malone a much different combo to work with.

King Joffrey’s shot chart this season.

Another pleasant surprise has been the play of second-year center Joffrey Lauvergne. He showed promise at Summer League and during the preseason, came out playing well, but suffered a back injury that derailed his November. In December he has seen a consistent role in the starting lineup where he’s averaging 19 minutes a game and putting up 10.3 points and 7.6 rebounds per game.

When you add Danilo Gallinari, Darrell Arthur and Kenneth Faried to Denver’s big man mix, you really have to appreciate all the options Malone has to work with. The Nuggets can go small with Gallo and open up the floor, they can put pressure on the boards with Faried and get aggressive on defense with Arthur.

The big men will have a unique challenge in Davis as he can basically do it all, but one man can’t carry an entire team. We’ve seen that story with Kevin Garnett and Kevin Love with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Davis needs Holiday, Tyreke Evans, Eric Gordon and Ryan Anderson to string together games the rest of the way if the Pels are going to try to get back into the Western Conference playoff race — as they’re currently 4.5 games back of the eighth place Utah Jazz.

Views you can use: 

1.) Randy Foye scored a season high 19 points on 7-9 shooting, including 5-6 from 3-point range in Denver’s recent win over the Timberwolves. Foye followed that game up with 0 points on 0-1 shooting against the Jazz in just 15 minutes of action. The season from hell continues for Foye as he’s shooting career lows from the field (32 percent) and 3-point land (24 percent).

2.) Gallo has been playing pretty consistently this season. His shooting has started to trend up in December as he’s converting on 42.1 percent of his looks – a bit better than the 37.8 percent he shot in November. Gallo has always been a bit of a streaky shooter, and that continues this season. His free throw rate has dipped just a touch this month from 7.1 to 6.1 in Dec.

3.) Many were hoping for a bounce back season from Faried and The Manimal has bounced back in several ways. His “marriage” with Malone seems to be going well as the Faried has been better on the defensive end this season — showing more desire and understanding on that end of the floor. While Faried has been improved on defense, he still has a long way to go, but early returns have been good to see.

Faried is also shooting the ball at a better clip in Malone’s system, raising his field goal percentage to 55.4 percent this season over the 50.7 percent he shot last season. The Nuggets are not force feeding the ball into the post as much with Faried, and allowing him to play off the ball is a better use of his skills.

However, getting the ball inside to Faried before the defense can truly set up allows him easier looks, like the one here:

One area of concern is Faried’s free throw shooting. So far this season he’s taking about as many free throws per game (3.9 per) as his career average (3.7), but he’s making less. This season Faried is shooting 51.8 percent from the foul line, compare that to his career average of 64.4 percent and you see the concern. It’s a difference of making 2.4 per game to his current 2.0, but you don’t want to see guys start to get the foul line trips in their head.

A point of emphasis for the past few years for Faried has been expanding his game, and those jumpers include practicing free throws – at this point, it’s unclear if The Manimal will ever be reliable from outside the paint.