The Denver Nuggets are back in action tonight as they take on the Sacramento Kings. The Nuggets are off to one of their best starts in franchise history with a 3-0 record while holding all three opponents under 100 points. Here is what to watch for: Keeping the Kings from running: The Kings play as fast as anyone in the league. The Sacramento offense is led by lightning-quick point guard De’Aaron Fox. The second-year player is averaging 20.3 points through three games this season while also dishing out 7.7 assists. Fox does most of his damage by getting to the hoop but isn’t much of a threat from deep, shooting just 14.3% from beyond the arc. The Nuggets bench: The Nuggets bench bounced back against the Warriors after a low scoring performance against Phoenix. The energy and effort caught the eye of Nuggets Head Coach Michael Malone. Malone said following Sunday’s win that he felt perhaps the bench was a bit hesitant against Phoenix but that they all had stellar performances against Golden State. The Nuggets will need their bench to continue that strong play as the team continues to adjust to playing without Will Barton. Finding a rhythm: While the Nuggets defense has been stellar, the offense struggled to make shots against Golden State. Against an up-tempo team like Sacramento the Nuggets figure to have plenty of possessions and opportunities to get the offense clicking. Tonight’s game will be at 7 pm MT. The game will be shown on Altitude TV and the AltitudeNOW app. Fans can listen on Altitude Radio, 92.5 FM.<doc-sep>The 3-0 Nuggets host the 2-1 Kings tonight in the fourth game in six nights for Denver. The Nuggets won a hard-fought road opener against the Los Angeles Clippers, smashed the Phoenix Suns in Denver’s home opener and then took down the defending champion Golden State Warriors in a nail-biter and one of the most tightly-contested games of the early season. An encore against the Kings is just the sort of game that last year’s Nuggets would fail to wake up for. The Kings are motivated coming off a defeat of the Oklahoma City Thunder, and several of their young players are showing out despite a 1-2 Kings-like start to the year for Sacramento. They can score and hand Denver some offensive runs so the Nuggets need to hold them down like they have the rest of their opponents this year in order to avoid the trap game, keeping the momentum they’ve built though the first week of the season. The Basics Who: Sacramento Kings (1-2) at Denver Nuggets (3-0) When: 7:00 PM MDT Where: The Can, Denver, CO How to watch: Altitude TV, AltitudeNOW.com and the AltitudeNOW App How to Listen: Altitude Radio 92.5 FM Rival Blog: Sactown Royalty Injury Report Will Barton (hip/groin) - out, Isaiah Thomas (hip) - out, Michael Porter Jr. (back) - out, Jarred Vanderbilt (foot) - out, Jamal Murray (lower leg) - probable, Bogdan Bogdanovic (knee - out), Kosta Koufos (hamstring) - doubtful Three Things to Watch Sacramento’s offense. They haven’t scored fewer than 117 points in any game this season, and while they can’t stop an angry paper bag - let alone the sort of threat that Nikola Jokic is - thus far they have the look of a fun team that isn’t afraid to go out and compete on offense and let the chips fall where they may. That’s just the sort of team that could find confidence if Denver doesn’t step on them early. De’Aaron Fox is a slasher that Denver may struggle to contain with Will Barton on the shelf and Jamal Murray hampered by that tibia contusion that gave him a serious limp for half the game against the Warriors. Jokic and Millsap should be more than a match for Marvin Bagley III, Willie Cauley-Stein, Harry Giles and the rest of Sacramento’s scrappy youngsters, but Denver will need to take the Kings seriously - which isn’t always the case for Sacramento. Denver’s wing depth. Barton is out, which likely means Torrey Craig is starting. His defense against Kevin Durant was nothing short of ferocious, but he’s not a scorer at this stage of his career. Jamal Murray is a scorer, but hasn’t found his stroke yet and will need to overcome that leg issue to be able to drive the hoop or get his legs under him from the field. This may be a game for Malik Beasley to show up heavy in the box score, or for Juancho Hernangomez to go off from deep, but regardless they’ll need someone to pick up the scoring slack. Denver has a deep team, and these are the games for them to swing the balance with their young bench talent. A winning hangover. Nikola Jokic just won the player of the week. The team is undefeated. They’ve had a couple of days to celebrate at home - will this team come out with the same effort and intensity against the Kings that they showed against the Warriors? It doesn’t do any good to beat the Warriors and lose to the Kings, and those are the sorts of slips this team made the last two years en route to missing the playoffs. If this year really will be different, then beating the teams they should beat is the least Denver should expect of itself. Prediction: Denver will lose it’s three-game streak of holding opponents under a hundred points but will still handily get the victory, 118-105.<doc-sep>When: Tuesday, October 23rd at 6:00 PM PT Where: Pepsi Center, Denver, CO TV: NBCSCA Radio: KHTK Sports 1140 AM For Your Consideration The facts of the case are this: The Sacramento Kings are second in the NBA in points per game at 125.7 points tallied per contest. The Denver Nuggets are 22nd in the NBA at just 108.7 points per game. The Sacramento Kings are 26th in three pointers made, the Nuggets are 30th. Your Sacramento Kings lead the league in pace. The Denver Nuggets are 14th. These are the facts of the case. And they are undisputed. Now, Denver Stiffs is gonna try to pull off a little magic act, they’re gonna try a little misdirection. They’re going to astonish you with stories of win-loss records and dazzle you with official sounding terms like Defensive Rating. They might even cut into a few strength of schedule numbers for you. They’ll have no evidence, mind you, none. But it’s gonna be entertaining. When we get to the end, all the magic in the world will not have been able to divert your attention from the fact that the Kings make baskets like a college kid wasting their parents money. These are the facts of the case. And they are undisputed. Prediction De’Aaron Fox shows the world how fast he is with the reduced air resistance at high altitudes. After the game Nikola Jokic tells reporters he’s going to model his game after Willie Cauley-Stein. Akis cries when the broadcast mentions Isaiah Thomas. Kings: 135, Nuggets: 124<doc-sep>Well, this was the least entertaining game of the short season but one man made it better: Marvin Bagley. We’ll get to him soon but the Sacramento Kings just struggled to get going and it stayed that way against a good Denver Nuggets team. The Kings did get over 100 points, so take that Denver’s defense! First Quarter Observations Buddy Hield takes a tough, contested three takes a tough, contested three Iman Shumpert to Willie Cauley-Stein for two to for two Fox pull-up three travels around the rim but fails to go in Nemanja Bjelica goes by Millsap for two goes by Millsap for two Shumpert misses a three but answers right after Fox with an interception and jukes everyone to draw a foul Willie with a spin on Jokic for two for two Marvin Bagley gets past Jokic for a layup and how about that previous move by Shumpert? Bagley hits a three! Jokic getting his way with rebounds Justin Jackson gets a deep two gets a deep two I don’t know why Yogi Ferrell took that pull-up three took that pull-up three 33-26 Nuggets lead after one Second Quarter Observations Nuggets lead by 13 in the early second Jackson gets another shot and a WCS steal gets another shot and a WCS steal Fox to Bagley for the and-1 dunk A Jackson three three WCS taking it right to Millsap Bjelica a three from Fox’s pass Jackson another three? ! Hield a putback off WCS’s miss a putback off WCS’s miss Fox with an and-1 Bench in to close the half? MASON BEATS THE BUZZER to make it 68-55 at the end of two Third Quarter Observations My stream suffered a crash but I was able to catch the end of the quarter Bagley blocked Jokic and scored the other way Giles definitely is lacking confidence definitely is lacking confidence The defense has looked nowhere near good Fourth Quarter Observations Bagley for two Giles really lacks confidence really lacks confidence Mason gets blocked big time by Beasley Stream is still janky Well, if the Kings played defense like the Nuggets this game would be much closer. Ferrell knocks down a pull-up three and the lead is 20 Ben McLemore and Skal Labissiere come in and come in McLemore with a three to get the Kings to 100 with a three to get the Kings to 100 BAGLEY ANOTHER BLOCK And then he scores again! Bagley lays it in again A Zach Randolph sighting...in the graphic for the Memphis game sighting...in the graphic for the Memphis game Game ends 112-126 Best Players Marvin Bagley seems to get better after each game. Today was his best performance of the season (close with the Pelicans game) and it was in a tough game. Bagley scored 20 points on 9/11 shooting, including making his lone three-point attempt. He was also great on the boards, grabbing nine and I was anxiously waiting for him to get his tenth but it didn’t happen, sadly. The best part of his day was the FIVE blocks, including denying Nikola Jokic near the rim. A great game from Bagley in 32 minutes of action. Justin Jackson makes it on this list after he almost made it last time out. Jackson scored 17 off the bench on 7/11 shooting with 3/5 of those coming from beyond the arc. He also played solid defense on certain possessions and looked better than he has all season. Hopefully, he can continue this level of play because he’s looking much, much better. Frank Mason didn’t play versus the Oklahoma City Thunder, but played 27 minutes today. 14 points (6/10 shooting), five rebounds and seven assists was his stat line today. Not to forget a buzzer beating three. Struggling Players De’Aaron Fox was not his normal self, sadly. In 20 minutes of action, he scored six points on 2/8 shooting and had four assists. Foul trouble was also an issue. A bounce back performance tomorrow is needed. Same goes for Buddy Hield, his back court partner. Hield looked off on all aspects of the game. In 23 minutes, he had five points and five rebounds on 2/7 shooting. Like Fox, a bounce back is necessary. Harry Giles just has not looked like what we fans thought he would look like ever since the first game of the season. He looked better against the Thunder, but continued to struggle today. He was 0/6 from the field and 0/2 on free throws. Foul trouble was there again, as he had four in the 14 minutes he played. Willie Money Watch I think this is a fun feature to add to every recap. Willie wasn’t necessarily all bad if you look at his stats, but those rebounding numbers should’ve been higher. He did make some tough shots guarded by Jokic, so I’ll give him that. His numbers have gone down every game but he’s still playing fairly well. Notable Stats Making free throws changes this game. The Kings were 9/20 on free throws. This game is much closer if free throws are being converted. The Kings were out-rebounded (again) 56-46. They just allow too many offensive rebounds and second-chance points and this problem may not go away for a while. The Kings did attempt 31 threes today and made 13, but most weren’t good shot selections. Denver struggled from three but that’s not a surprise so far for them. Iman Shumpert scored 12 points on 4/7 shooting in 19 minutes. I thought he played solid again. The Game in One Sentence This section was blocked by Bagley. Next Game The Kings return home to face the Memphis Grizzlies at 7:00 PM PST.<doc-sep>
The Denver Nuggets avoided the trap game Tuesday night with a 126-112 win against the Sacramento Kings Tuesday night at Pepsi Center. Playing its third contest in four days, Denver’s meeting with Sacramento came two days after a thrilling win against the two-time defending champion Golden State Warriors and two days before a primetime meeting against LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers Thursday. The Nuggets, the league’s top defensive team through its first three contests, took care of business, holding the Kings to their lowest point total of the season to remain undefeated and maintain their spot atop the Western Conference standings. “It was a good win,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “Obviously, not the defense that we had hoped for, but were not going to hold everybody below 100.” Third-year Nuggets point guard Jamal Murray exploded for 13 points in the third quarter to finish with a team-high 19 in addition to four assists and a steal. Shooting guard Gary Harris poured in 11 of his 18 points in the first quarter, to go along with five assists and three rebounds in a game during which Denver rested its starters the entire fourth quarter. The Nuggets led 68-55 at the half and never looked back, on its way to its 10th straight win at home, dating back to last season. Reigning Western Conference Player of the Week Denver center Nikola Jokic posted a double-double in the first half and filled out the stat sheet, 14 points, 12 rebounds and six assists. Power forward Paul Millsap had his best offensive performance of the season, scoring 15 points on 60 percent shooting from the field and snatching down five rebounds. “It’s good to see Paul Millsap kind of get going,” Malone said. “He went at his matchup. He scored. If he can get into an offensive rhythm and find some confidence, it’s going to help us out a lot.” Trey Lyles led three Nuggets reserves, who finished in double-figures in scoring, with 12 points followed by Monte Morris (who also added seven assists), Malik Beasley Mason Plumlee, each of whom had 11. The Nuggets shot 58.8 percent from the field and outrebounded the Kings 49-39. Denver also connected on 13 of its 15 free-throw attempts (86.7 percent) after missing 18 from the charity stripe against the Warriors Sunday and scored 72 points in the paint against the Kings. Kings forward Marvin Bagley, the second overall pick in the 2018 draft, led the Kings with a game-high 20 points while grabbing nine rebounds. Justin Jackson added 17 points. Iman Shumpert had 12. Willie Cauley-Stein added 11 as did Yogi Ferrell and Nemanja Bjelica had 10. The Denver Nuggets will travel to Los Angeles to take on the Lakers Thursday at 8:30 p.m. That game will be aired live on TNT and streamed on TNT Overtime.