Friday, December 28, 2007

Golden State v Denver Nuggets preview



Versus



Tonight is a test. After almost blowing a 28 point against the worst team in the League what better way for the Warriors to relieve the memory and face one of the Western Conference elite in the Denver Nuggets. Over the next few days it's time to find out whether the Warriors stack up well with the Western elite and what better way to start then against the denver Nuggets. Right now when you think of the Nuggets you think of a lot of things. There's the superstar combo of Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony, the intimidating shot blocking of Marcus Camby and the strategic coaching of George Karl a former Warriors coach. Everything points to a Nuggets W I'm afraid. Last season they took 3 out of 4 mainly because the Warriors still haven't figured out a way to box out Camby. When you think about it the Nuggets should be much better then their 17-11 record but for some reason haven't gelled yet. Here are the key matchups tonight.

Expect a busy night for the scorekeeper. Both two teams are the highest scoring in the League but really the only difference is the scoring is done in different ways. The Nuggets superstars both Carmelo Anthony(25.5 ppg) and Allen Iverson(26.3) combine for most of the teams points while in contrast the Warriors have a much more equal offense. Maybe this is the reason to my earlier question above. With the Nuggets twice, Houston (13-15), Dallas (19-11), New Orleans (18-10), San Antonio (20-7), and then Portland (16-12 4-3 would be nicely accepted.

The one thing I think the warriors have a slight advantge off is the 3 point shooting. The Nuggets don't have any right now JR Smith and Kleiza being their only. Yes the matchup problems are significant enough for Denver to prevail but if they miss their early shots who knows. Seeing Iverson on Davis will be a pain in the butt though because A.I is one of the quickest players in the League and Baron would get fatigued fighting through all those screens. Monta could try but it would be a tall task.

A coach's return to the bay area

Defensively I'm also interested to see what goes on. The Nuggets take more of a gamble on steals something they cn afford with Camby as Center. It's only a matter of time when Marcus gets named Defensive player of the year again because of his impressive .6 blocks per game and 14 boards. One wonders how Denver manage to give up 102.9PPG such is the brutalness of Camby inside. Should be a busy night for the scorekeeper.

Perdictions:
Camby has 20 boards
Both teams combine for 245 points
Davis has a monster game
Warriors by 4

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