There’ll be no Drake on the sidelines trying to egg on the Raptors later tonight. After going through the Cavs and the Warriors in two straight games, the Raptors will see a sudden drop of level in competition, as they go up against Denver on the road later tonight. The Raptors lost both games to last season’s conference champs, the latest being the 127-121 defeat at home to the Warriors on Wednesday.
Those pair of losses, however, didn’t take anything away from the DeMar DeRozan’s hot start to the season. DeRozan scored 26 and 34 points against Cleveland and Golden State, respectively, and should have another good game against the Nuggets, whose soft defense allows opponents to score 107.8 PPG.
Easy scoring opportunities could also come repeatedly for Toronto in this game, as Denver is among the worst in the league in taking care of the leather. Denver is 28th in the NBA in turnovers per game (17.2). Toronto, on the other hand, is fifth overall in scoring off opponents’ errors, making 18.5 points per game from the other team’s’ turnovers.
Toronto is 3-1 ATS in its last four games in Denver.
Wins have been hard to come by for Denver this season. The Nuggets are just 4-7 thus far and they will try to win consecutively for the first time this campaign when they host the Raptors at Pepsi Center, where Denver is 2-8 ATS in their last 10 games there, later tonight.
The Nuggets put an end to their four-game skid on Wednesday, beating Phoenix, 120-104, at home. Wilson Chandler provided a big spark off the bench for the Nuggets, scoring 28 points on 11-for-22 shooting. It looks like the Nuggets will have to find that kind of production somewhere else against Toronto, as Chandler is questionable to play due to a nagging hamstring ailment.
If Chandler is ultimately sidelined, the brunt of Denver’s offense will likely be shouldered by Danilo Gallinari and Emmanuel Mudiay, who are averaging 12.2 PPG and 15.5 PPG this season, respectively.
Denver’s defense leaves much to be desired but appears to be well equipped in slowing down a team like Toronto, which shoots a lot of two-point jumpers. That’s because the Nuggets are seventh in the league when it comes to contesting two-point jumpers per NBA.com so guys like DeRozan and Terrence Ross could expect hands on their faces all game long.
