Raptors fall short of EPIC UPSET in Denver
After taking a huge first-half lead against the Nuggets, can the Toronto Raptors hold on? Join us live in the post-game to find out if they did.
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The Denver Nuggets avoided a letdown against the Utah Jazz on Saturday night and will have to avoid complacency Monday night when they host the slumping Toronto Raptors.
Denver beat Utah 142-121 two nights after a tense win over Boston, but Saturday didn’t come without some hand-wringing. The Nuggets allowed just 44 points in the first half while building a 39-point lead but then gave up 44 points in the third quarter to give the Jazz some hope.
The Nuggets recovered in time to get their eighth win in nine games and heed a warning at the same time.
“I am never going to be disappointed with a win — this is a wins-and-loss business so we got a win at a very pivotal point of the year — but I am not just going to accept how we played,” Denver coach Michael Malone said after Saturday night’s game. “We have to be better. We have to hold ourselves to a much higher standard.”
The Nuggets have flipped a switch since the All-Star break to get into a tight race for the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference, but they are entering a tough part of the schedule. They play at Miami on Wednesday, then come home to face San Antonio but hit the road again to play Dallas and Minnesota.
That puts more importance on beating a Toronto team that has lost five of its past six games and is playing short-handed. Center Jakob Poeltl, who would have taken some of the responsibility of guarding Nikola Jokic on Monday, is out indefinitely after surgery on his left pinkie. Scottie Barnes also had hand surgery and is unavailable.
Bruce Brown, who helped Denver win the title last season, has missed the last four games with a knee injury and is unlikely to play Monday night. And RJ Barrett was scratched from the lineup before Saturday’s overtime loss at Portland with an illness but could return for the game against the Nuggets.
10 Comments
Honestly who cares at this point –
a. IQ/BARNES/RJ going to take up 60% of our cap next season.
b. We're going to lose our pick this year to the Spurs.
c. Gradey Dick is the next Kyle Korver
d. We're going to suck less next year – probabily 40-42 or 42-40
I see RJ guarding out of position so all that can’t play d stuff is a non player talking. He has to score set up offence and switch on to jokic and not give up idk. Tougher than it looks
Great live. Favorite part was the end recap with the glass half full optimism.
Curious to know your opinion on why they’re choosing to play Bruce Brown so much. I feel like his minutes could be better used on the development of younger guys that we see staying with us longer term. Is it simply to increase his trade value? Cus you could argue it’s actually having the opposite effect as he’s been mostly a negative on offence and often times looks lost out there on defence
Johntay was great tonight. I was very impressed by how hard he made Jokic work. Great effort by a seriously depleted Raptors team.
massive that so many of our players can rack up the assists!
Nice competitive L. We didn’t roll over but winning last night and a potential win against the pistons doesn’t help our chances of keeping our pick which is now important. Without Barnes and Jak this team is not even a play in team. Competitive L’s like last is the best thing for the future of this team right now. Fact is we need as many potential talent we can stock up on since we let a number of guys walk over the years and we were forced trade Pascal for less than we wanted to. It’s not always about what’s in front of you now but next season and the season after. I remember last season when a section of this fan base wanted to trade guys like Fred and there was a huge push back from some fans that always think it’s best to go for it. That decision ended up costing us assets and yet we still didn’t make the play in. Fast forward to this season and we’re in a worst spot now than last season and yet there’s still some fans that think it’s best to go for it. See in the off season these guys will be the same fans to say ohhh “Masai f…… up by trying to go for it” these are the see it to believe it fans. When they see it they then flip and start blaming Masai and Bobby when they were the biggest supporters of going for it. See now they’re seating in off season and reality has set in and they’re charging their story. “Oh man we shouldn’t have went for it so now it’s to Fire Masai” 🤦♂️🤦♂️
Rj is a decent player im just not interested in him
RJ the most consistent Raptor on offence since he’s arrived. He made a great defensive effort tonight.
People need to stop obsessing over trying to get to 6th before the lottery, 7th Pick has moved up to top 4, 4 out of the last 5 years since they changed the odds. Over the last 7 years the 6th position has only retained a top 6 pick once, which was last years draft.
Pace for 7th.