Rookies, on both sides, play key roles as Denver Nuggets face Indiana Pacers

The Denver Nuggets face the Indiana Pacers on Saturday night at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, after holding off the Wizards late rally with a 117-113 victory in the nation’s capital on Thursday. Saturday’s game marks the third road game in four days for the Nuggets, who look to finish off their brief tour of the Eastern Conference with a 2-1 record.

Indiana is coming off of a comfortable 111-92 victory over the Atlanta Hawks, which snapped a three game skid and a stretch that included six losses in seven games. The Pacers were led in scoring by Monta Ellis, rookie Myles Turner and the recently returned George Hill, who scored 25, 20 and 18 respectively. Lavoy Allen also added 12 rebounds in 20 minutes off the bench as the Pacers out-rebounded the Hawks 49-32 leading to a Pacers blowout win.

Rookie Matchups

Pacers’ rookie Joe Young has seen his minutes drastically reduced for the past three games with the return of George Hill to the lineup, but he had a number of solid showings while Hill was away — including a 17 point, seven assists night against the Nuggets earlier this month in Denver. In his first three games with at least 18 minutes of playing time since November, Young managed 15, 11 and 16 points and 7, 5 and 8 assists. He doesn’t figure to see the court all that much on Saturday, but it would nice to see him matchup again against Nuggets’ rookie Emmanuel Mudiay.

Mudiay struggled in his 37 minutes against the Pacers at Pepsi Center, with just 10 points, six assists and seven turnovers. Mudiay put in a solid effort against the Wizards, scoring 20 points on 7-14 shooting, adding four assists, four rebounds and two steals. Mudiay also knocked down five of his six free throw attempts, which is notable as he has now gone four games without missing more than one free throw.

The other rookie matchup to watch could go a long way towards determining the outcome of the game as standouts Myles Turner and Nikola Jokic go toe-to-toe in the paint. Turner had a breakout performance in his last game against the Nuggets, scoring 25 points on an incredible 11-13 shooting. He has gone on the earn at least 26 minutes of playing time in four of the Pacers’ five games since then, which included a 31 point outburst against the Warriors and 20 points in Thursday night’s win over the Hawks. In the past six games, Turner has been incredibly efficient from the paint, out to the free-throw line extended as you can see from his shot chart below, so the book should be pretty clear on how to defend him.

Nikola Jokic continued his incredibly efficient season against the Wizards, scoring 15 points on 7-12 shooting and pulling down 10 rebounds (five offensive). That was Jokic’s fifth double-double on the season (the last three have all been 15 point, 10 rebound games coincidentally) and second in three games.

Jokic sits atop the rookie rankings in John Hollinger’s Player Efficiency Rating, with Myles Turner just two spots behind, proving that the inspired play Nuggets fans have seen all season is backed up by statistics (even if those statistics are often very confusing and convoluted). Ian Mahinmi, the Pacers’ likely starting center, will get a number of minutes matched up against the Nuggets young big man, so it will be interesting to see how Jokic responds against the veteran who missed the last game in Denver with a heel injury.

Other Nuggets of Interest

• With Jameer Nelson, Darrell Arthur and Jokic all listed as probably, the Nuggets will get another good look at a fairly healthy rotation. Joffrey Lauvergne is currently listed as questionable with his toe injury.
• Despite their resent struggles, the Pacers still sit in the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, two games ahead of the Charlotte Hornets and just 2.5 games behind the third place Chicago Bulls.
• Paul George will likely be glued to Danilo Gallinari all night, so it will be interesting to see how the Italian responds to the attention of a world-class wing defender.
• It will also be interesting to see which Paul George shows up at the other end. Will it be the 31 point, 11 rebound George from their loss to the Clippers, or the 11 point (2-11 shooting), three rebound George from the win against the Hawks?
• The mantra for most of the first half of the season was that everything would change once Jusuf Nurkic came back from injury. The Bosnian Beast has been uneven in his most recent return, but showed some signs of life on Thursday night scoring eight points, grabbing five boards and picking up a couple of assists and a block in just 16 minutes on the court. Most importantly, he was only called for two fouls, which had been a problem recently. It would be nice to see another solid showing from the big guy on Saturday night in Indiana.