After a hard fought, but ultimately disappointing, loss to the Indiana Pacers in overtime, The Denver Nuggets face off against the Raptors and their all star back court of Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan. For the Nuggets, this is both good and bad news. The good news is that our young back court of Emmanuel Mudiay and Gary Harris will get the experience of facing this dynamic and exciting pair. The bad news is that our young back court will have to face off against this dominant duo. From this humble fan’s perspective, the area where all of Denver’s defensive breakdowns begin is with the inability to contain penetration – most especially in pick and roll situations. This isn’t all on the guards, to be sure, as our bigs have also struggled in pick and roll situations. If there were one area that I would like to see improved over the last half of the season, it would be for us to come up with a more consistent method of controlling guard penetration off pick and rolls.
