Denver Nuggets at Phoenix Suns

Sadly instead of pushing the pedal to the medal, they let off the gas and allowed the Suns to respond with a 10-2 run of their own before Mike Malone called a timeout. It created a catch-22 situation where the Suns were able to sink back into the paint, prevented the Nuggets from scoring inside and kept them shooting more and more jumpers.

Kenneth Faried added 14 points and 11 rebounds for Denver. “I dedicated my whole summer to self-improvement and all I had on my mind this offseason and preseason was ‘this was my year, I was going to help this team win, ‘” he said. The Nuggets are heavy underdogs in this game, and it seems it should be that way given that Phoenix’s strengths are in the backcourt and Denver starts a rookie point guard.

“They should know Faried’s an active guy”, Hornacek said. If you watch a shot go up and you’re going to go box him out where you thought he was standing, you can forget it. He’s not going to be there. “We’re not going to say it’s the second night of a back-to-back and we have injuries”. “He had 27 points, 7 of 9 from the field 10 of 10 from the free-throw line”.

“When you just start to be a starter and you start to make your way in this league”, coach Hornacek said. While Chandler hasn’t appeared in any games, Gallinari and Faried are Denver’s top two scorers. The French national anthem will also be sung.

Despite it being their second game of a back to back, the Denver Nuggets came out with plenty of energy as they open the game up on a 7-2 run.

The swingman signed a contract extension with the team worth $46.5 million to play for them for four more years. The Rockets, this time around, had Dwight Howard in the starting lineup and team was as healthy as they have been all season.

The Suns have become the second-fastest pace team in the National Basketball Association, averaging 103.7 possessions per 48 minutes. “It happens.” Barton playing well. Denver G Emmaunel Mudiay came into the game averaging 11.9 points, 6.8 assists, 4.1 rebounds and 1.22 steals. Phoenix also ended the second quarter on a last-second alley-oop inbounded from P.J. Tucker to Tyson Chandler. The problem was no one else on the team had more than four.

It’s not that the Nuggets have been playing badly.

Then those aspirations took a big dent opening night with a 20-point loss to the supposedly lottery-bound Denver Nuggets. That’s it. Last year, only Curry and Russell Westbrook put those numbers up for an entire season.

Knight and Gary Harris were fairly quiet in the game but Bledsoe put up thirty points.

Key Nuggets injuries: Wilson Chandler (right hip labral tear) and Jusuf Nurkic (left patellar tendon repair) are out; Joffrey Lauvergne (back) is questionable; Jameer Nelson (lower back) is probable.

The last word goes to Nuggets coach Michael Malone after guard Will Barton scored 26 with five-for-six 3-point shooting Friday night: “Barton off the bench was incredible”.