Game Preview: At Washington Wizards

     The Nuggets (34-21, 11-18 on the road) will play the first of two back to back road games at Washington (15-37, 11-15 at home) tonight at 5:00 PM Mountain Time. While many people may think this is a gimme game for the Nuggets, I would disagree. The first and most obvious reason being that the Wizards are one of the only 3 teams to beat the Nuggets at home. The second being that the Nuggets road record is 11-18, which is worse than the Wizards home record, 11-15. Let's face it, the Nuggets have been a pretty bad road team so far, if they can improve on road games and keep up the pace at home, they should be able to lock up that 4th seed and home court for the playoffs. This is a perfect game to start gaining confidence on the road. Here are my 3 keys to winning tonight's game.

#1. 1st Quarter Defense: My first key is essential to beating any selfish (9th fewest assists in the league) jump shot happy team like the Wizards. While The Wizards offensive style won't win many games, it can be extremely dangerous if they hit their early shots and gain confidence. If the Nuggets play with the defensive intensity from the opening tip, the Wizards don't have a chance, and this could be a blowout.

#2. Hit your free throws!!!: One thing the Wizards do pretty well is keeping their opponents off the free throw line (16th fewest FTs allowed), while the Nuggets shoot a league low from the line at 68%.

#3. Run, Run, And Run: Once again keeping with the theme of playing against a jump shooting team, with lots of long jumpshots, comes lots of long rebounds that enable plenty of fast break opportunities.

Key Match up: Kenneth VS Nene
You have to love this, a player going up against the player who made him expendable. The first match up wasn't that great, Kenneth had the slight edge on a nervous looking Nene who seemed to be trying to do too much in front of his old fans. This should be interesting to watch.

While the Nuggets should be able to pull out a win tonight, the Wizards have the ability to make this a close game in the fourth. Look for a post game review following the game to review my keys!

Make sure to like Nuggets Daily's facebook page!
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Nuggets-Daily/526863587358147?ref=ts&fref=ts