Regular season game No. 30 | Denver Nuggets (12-17) vs Atlanta Hawks (14-15)
Pepsi Center, Denver, Colorado | 7:00 PM MST | TV: Altitude
DENVER — The Denver Nuggets face a reeling Atlanta Hawks team without Dwight Howard, who did not travel with the Hawks due to his back injury. The Nuggets are looking to get back on track after losing to the Los Angeles Clippers and extend their home winning streak to four games.
Winning the turnover battle
“Turnovers will be big tonight. They force turnovers but they also turn the ball over a lot themselves so who can value the ball?” Michael Malone said. “You go back to our three game home stand we did a great job taking care of the ball. Only turned it over around 12 times per game and we had a great assist to turnover ratio.”
That really sums it up quite well. The Hawks are the third most turnover-prone team in the league averaging 16.3 per game while the Nuggets are right behind them with 16 turnovers per game, good for fourth-worst in the NBA. The big difference is that Atlanta forces the fourth-best team forcing turnovers at 15.5 opponent turnovers per game while Denver is the third-worst at just 12.1 opponent turnovers per game.
Gary Harris’ return should remedy some of the Nuggets’ issues creating turnovers but as of right now the Nuggets still struggle to rack up steals and force turnovers so they will have to focus heavily on valuing the ball tonight against the Hawks. Turnovers have plagued the Nuggets for the majority of the season but in the last four games they are averaging just 12.5 turnovers per contest and have looked like much more controlled offensively. If Denver can continue valuing the ball the way they have over the past week they should leave the Pepsi Center with their fourth straight home victory.
No Dwight Howard for the Hawks
While Howard, who is averaging 14 points and 13 rebounds a night, having to sit out seems like a negative for the Hawks it may not be. Malone compared it to how the Clippers operate without Griffin and how it can benefit the rest of the team having another shooter or wing player as opposed to another big on the floor.
“I kind of compare it to the Clippers the other night. Blake Griffin is a helluva player, one of the top players in the NBA, but no Blake Griffin just gives Chris Paul and DeAndre Jordan that much more room to attack and they put more shooters on the floor. Tonight, no Dwight Howard.” Malone continued, “Yes, they will miss his five offensive rebounds a game, but now Millsap, Schroder, Korver, Hardaway, Sefolosha, Bazemore have more room and more space to operate.”
Atlanta could benefit from playing just Paul Millsap as the only big on the floor the same way the Nuggets have by playing Jokic as the lone big. Dennis Schroder and Emmanuel Mudiay share similar issues of being an attack guard without much of a jump shot. Adding additional shooting and removing Howard from the paint could do wonders for Schroder and is something to watch for throughout the night.
