| 2012/2013 NBA Regular Season: Game 78 | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
vs |  |
|
57-20 (23-15 on the road)
|
2-1 SAN | |
| April 6th, 2013 – 8:30 PM (MT) | ||
| Pepsi Center – Denver, CO |
||
| Altitude / ESPN / 950 AM / 104.3 FM The Fan | ||
| Probable Starters | ||
| Nando De Colo |
PG | Andre Miller |
| Danny Green |
SG | Andre Iguodala |
| Kawhi Leonard |
SF | Wilson Chandler |
| Tim Duncan |
PF | Kenneth Faried |
| Tiago Splitter |
C | Kosta Koufos |
| Notes | ||
| Pounding the Rock | Blogs | Denver Stiffs |
| Tony Parker (shin/neck) game time decision, Manu Ginobili (out), Boris Diaw (out) | Injuries | Danilo Gallinari (torn ACL, out), Ty Lawson (out, Foot ouchy) unlikely |
| San Antonio is fighting for first seed in the Western Conference |
Stat | < a href="http://www.sbnation.com/nba/teams/denver-nuggets" class="sbn-auto-link">Nuggets look to stay ahead of Memphis by a game |
It’s time to once again face the San Antonio Spurs. This time, both teams are seriously depleted with injuries … although based on a scan of the injury report, the Nuggets are a bit less injured than the Spurs.
The Spurs have the fortune of being coached by Gregg Popovich so you can expect anything and everything. Stephen Jackson stayed in San Antonio, while Boris Diaw, and Manu Ginobili are out for this game. However, Tony Parker is on the trip and MAY play in this game. As of the writing of this preview we do no know if he will. That could change the equation the Nuggets play for tonight.
Meanwhile, the Spurs have the best record in the Western Conference and, after coasting through the season with relative ease, have faced some injury adversity of late. However, Tim Duncan is having one of his best seasons in recent memory. He's been mostly healthy and is averaging
Not bad for someone who is about to turn 37 years old. These are Duncan's best numbers since the 2009-10 season. It's remarkable that a big man of Duncan's age can put up those kinds of stats. Even his center cohort from the late 90's early 00's David Robinson didn't put up those types of stats at that age.
As ever, though, the Spurs tend to go as far as Tony Parker and Gregg Popovich take them. With Parker's playing status up in the air for this evening, it may be up to the crafty Pop to come up with a way for the Spurs to break the Nuggets NBA-best home court dominance. Or at least attempt to.
Nuggets of Wisdom
It’s hard to read too much in to the Nuggets last game against the Houston Rockets. The Rockets were coming off a game the previous night in Portland and were missing two of their best scorers (Chandler Parsons, Carlos Delfino). Even though the Spurs are quite injured at the moment, they will provide a far more accurate appraisal of where the Nuggets are without Danilo Gallinari and Ty Lawson. The Rockets, oddly, decided they could out “track meet” the Nuggets and it just didn’t work. The Spurs won’t do that.
The starting lineup with Wilson Chandler seemed to work. My only concern is the last two games he seems to be getting into pretty quick first half foul trouble. This is due, it seems, to Wilson’s aggressive defensive style. Hopefully he can adjust a bit. Andre Iguodala still needs to score, and JaVale McGee needs a repeat performance of the last game he played against the Spurs where he didn’t go for pump fakes, stayed down, and played solid defense. That was the last good game McGee has played.
As ever GO NUGGETS!
