Will Barton, Denver Nuggets in Portland to face C.J. McCollum, Trail Blazers

The Denver Nuggets head into Portland tonight with a record of 12-20 after dropping their last three games and six of their last seven. The Nuggets will be playing the second of a back-to-back after losing to Cleveland 93-87 at Pepsi Center. It was a frustrating night for the Nuggets as LeBron James outscored, by himself, all five of Denver’s starters 34-33. Denver continues to struggle in defensive minded games, as they dropped another game after failing to score 100 points.

Amazing Stat of the Day: The #Nuggets have lost 30 straight games, going back to last season, when scoring under 100 points.

— Chris Dempsey (@dempseypost) December 30, 2015

Portland enters tonight with a record of 13-20 and winners of their last two games over Cleveland and Sacramento. The Trail Blazers certainly seemed to gain some confidence after their impressive 105-76 victory over the Cavaliers on Saturday night in Portland. Like Denver, Portland has played well at times this season, but has struggled to play consistently. The Trail Blazers will be looking to enter into 2016 on a high note as they seek their third consecutive win tonight.

When

Wednesday, Dec. 30th at 8:00 p.m. MST

Where

Moda Center – Portland, OR

Quick Shots – Nuggets

Emmanuel Mudiay, Danilo Gallinari and Jusuf Nurkic are once again sitting this game out for Denver. While the Nuggets have fought hard without key players fighting their respective injuries, the addition of these three players into the lineup will certainly be a welcome sight for a team struggling to remain afloat in the Western Conference playoff race.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, Will Barton continues to show night-in-and-night-out that he’s become the most consistent player on this Nuggets team. Last night he scored 29 points while shooting 11-20 from the floor. It was the seventh time Barton has scored 20 or more points in a game this season and he’ll be facing the team that drafted him tonight.

Nikola Jokic struggled at times last night as he shot 4-11 from the floor. However, the rookie turned in a nice effort before he fouled out of the game late in the fourth quarter. Jokic finished with 10 points and 7 rebounds. One of the highlights of the night was the post-up (shown below) on former Nugget Timofey Mozgov.

Quick Shots – Trail Blazers

C.J. McCollum has been a very pleasant surprise for Portland so far this season. The third year guard out of Lehigh has burst onto the scene in large part thanks to averaging 20.4 points and 4.3 assists per game. As outlined by Justin Green of Blazer’s Edge, McCollum’s improvement has people around the league taking notice. To me, C.J. is the leading candidate for Most Improved Player of the Year heading into 2016.

Damian Lillard has been fighting a case of plantar fasciitis in his left foot for the past month or so (Peyton Manning feels his pain). Although he is inching closer and closer to a return after missing the last four games since he re-aggravated the injury. Off the floor, Lillard is an aspiring rapper who goes by the name of Dame DOLLA. Stephen Curry actually featured Dame DOLLA’s song “Bigger Than Us” in his new commercial for JBL.

Final Shot

In a crowded race for the final two or three spots in the Wester Conference playoff race, tonight’s game could prove to be crucial in April when tiebreakers come into play for final seedings. Denver leads the season series 1-0 over Portland and will be looking to make that 2-0 tonight. The Nuggets desperately need a win as they look to avoid a four game losing streak and close out 2015 on a high note.