DENVER — Coming off of a sweep of their recent road back-to-back, the Nuggets are looking to pad their lead for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference against Kemba Walker and the Charlotte Hornets, who have won just three of their last 17 games.
Regular season game No. 62 | Denver Nuggets (28-33) @ Charlotte Hornets (26-35)
Pepsi Center, Denver Colorado | 7:00 PM MST | TV: Altitude
Limiting Walker
The Nuggets have struggled in a few different ways this season but arguably the worst issue that Denver has faced is how often their guards and wings get blown by on the perimeter. Denver struggles to keep anyone in front of them and, without a significant rim defender, teams tend to slice the Nuggets up inside of the paint.
Walker is one of the best in the league at using his ball-handling ability to break down defenses with dribble penetration and either finding shooters on the perimeter or finish at the rim himself. If Denver hopes to win their third consecutive game then they will need to find a way to limit the effectiveness of Walker.
“We have to give him different looks,” Michael Malone said. “He is shooting 41 percent from three and taking seven a game. Obviously, he can get his shot whenever he wants it. He’s a classic New York City guard with a great handle but he’s able to make shots. So it will be a challenge.”
With Gary Harris consumed with the bigger Nicolas Batum, Denver may have some difficulties defending Walker with both Jameer Nelson and Jamal Murray. Look for the Nuggets to hedge more often and let their frontcourt players help out their guards in high pick-and-rolls.
“You can’t just guard him one on one so we will have to have help behind him but most importantly, with all of the pick-and-rolls that they run for both (Kemba Walker) and Nicolas Batum. We have to be really on point and disciplined on our game plan and change our coverage throughout just to give him different looks and keep him off-balanced a little bit. It will be a heck of a challenge for us.”
Playoff outlook
As it stands, the Nuggets are still in control of the eighth seed, but the Portland Trail Blazers are two-and-a-half games back. Behind Portland is a three-way tie for the 10th seed between the Minnesota Timberwolves, Sacramento Kings, and Dallas Mavericks, who are all three games behind Denver.
The Timberwolves will take on the San Antonio Spurs tonight while the Trail Blazers play the Brooklyn Nets. With 20 games left, Denver needs to secure every home win possible to continue to build a lead for the final playoff spot.
Footnotes
Jameer Nelson, who missed Denver’s last game in Milwaukee with food poisoning, is active and will start with Jamal Murray taking up the reserve point guard minutes. Emmanuel Mudiay will slide back into the third point guard role.
Kenneth Faried is still out and will continue to get treatment for the back spasms he is currently dealing with. Wilson Chandler is expected to start in his place.
