![]() ![]() A team’s current rating reflects any injuries and rest days in effect at the moment of the team's next game. A team’s full-strength rating assumes all of its key players are in the lineup. These are combined with up-to-date depth charts - tracking injuries, trades, changes in playing time and other player transactions - to generate talent estimates for each team. Our player-based RAPTOR forecast doesn’t account for wins and losses it is based entirely on our NBA player projections, which estimate each player’s future performance based on the trajectory of similar NBA players. Denver is good enough to beat Phoenix outright, so with such a big spread, they're the logical pick here.How this works: These forecasts are based on 50,000 simulations of the rest of the season. Otherwise? It's a toss-up, and in a toss-up, I'm always going to take the points. If Paul looks like himself in Game 1? Phoenix should be strong favorites in this series. Mike Malone is going to throw the kitchen sink at Booker, and that is going to be the chess match the determines who wins this thing. The bigger Gordon might get a look on him as Denver's guards shouldn't have to worry about Mikal Bridges or Jae Crowder taking advantage of size advantages. The Lakers had some success doubling Booker off of screens even inside of the arc. But make no mistake, Booker and Paul are going to define this series, and Denver is going to have to get creative in how they defend them. He averaged over 34 points per game in the first round.īarton and Dozier could return at some point in this series. Denver might have beaten Portland, but it's not as though they shut down Lillard. After they get past those two, they run into… Devin Booker and Chris Paul. Just as they lose all of their guards, they run into the team with Damian Lillard and C.J. Phoenix needs to score to win this series, and that means a healthy Paul. Phoenix hasn't played since Thursday, so he's had some extra time to recover, and Cameron Payne has been so good in the postseason that Phoenix can at least afford not to overtax Paul within games, but the Nuggets aren't going to be as forgiving as the Lakers without Anthony Davis were. The Suns aren't going to win shootouts against the Nuggets without their point guard at something close to full strength. Denver averaged over 120 against Portland. The Suns managed to hold the Lakers below 110 points in all six of their first round games and below 100 three times. Devin Booker was so transcendent against the Lakers that Phoenix could live without Paul at his peak, but the Nuggets are going to be a far more difficult test. Then he scored only 17 combined points on 33.3 percent shooting in Games 5 and 6. Suns: How healthy is Chris Paul? He looked great in Game 4 against the Lakers. We may not have expected a Nuggets-Suns matchup at this stage, but we've got one now, and here's how you can tune into Game 1 on Monday night. They're more than resilient enough to keep winning without Murray. ![]() The Nuggets overcame multiple 3-1 deficits last season. The surprising Suns can no longer be deemed particularly surprising after posting the second-best record in the NBA and taking down the defending champs. Surely, they wouldn't be able to beat a fully healthy Portland Trail Blazers team without three of their top five guards. Things looked even bleaker when Will Barton and P.J. Then Jamal Murray tore his ACL and the entire trajectory of their franchise changed. The Nuggets looked every bit a championship contender when they acquired Aaron Gordon at the trade deadline. ![]() The Suns had a great regular season, but once they drew the defending champion Lakers in the first round, most pundits expected their time in the postseason to be short. The Phoenix Suns and Denver Nuggets aren't supposed to be here. ![]()
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