Game Day: Knicks @ Nuggets, 5/5/21

After a rousing win in Memphis on Monday, the Knicks look to push their win streak to four games and their Western Conference road trip record to 3-0. However, MVP frontrunner Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets are standing in their way.

I keep leading basically every preview lately with “Will tonight be the night the Knicks meet their match??” and they keep making me look like an idiot. But I’m a superstitious fella, so I’m gonna do it again anyway.

Will tonight be the night the Knicks meet their match?

Yes, the Knicks are undoubtedly the hottest team in the NBA, winners of 12 of their last 13 games. But the Nuggets are a buzzsaw as well — they’ve won 17 of their last 21 games, and, unfortunately for the Knicks, they’re probably a bit pissed off about losing to the shorthanded Lakers on national TV on Monday night.

Things are quite a bit different for both teams since the last time they faced off — Jan. 10 saw the Knicks fall to 5-5 after a 5-3 start, and the Nuggets pull themselves back to .500. Now, the Knicks find themselves at 37-28, good for fourth in the East, while the Nuggets are 43-22, fourth in the West and just a half game short of the Clippers for third. So, suffice to say, the divergent paths that New York and Denver have taken to get to this late-season meeting have both been decidedly uphill.

It’s kinda fun to look at the box score for that game, too: 114-89, Nuggets. Yuck. Julius Randle: 29 points, 10 rebounds, five assists for the Knicks in 38 minutes. Sounds about right. RJ Barrett: nine points on 4-13 shooting, 0-3 from three as he endured one of the worst shooting slumps of his young career. Thankfully that’s more than subsided. And, oh, look: Austin Rivers played 22 minutes and notched a team-worst -22 plus/minus. He plays for the Nugs now!

Anyway, here we are at May 5, and this game has some pretty serious implications for both teams. As said above, the Nuggets are just one game behind the Clippers in the win column for a third seed tie, and could reach that tonight with the Clippers off. The Knicks, meanwhile, probably don’t have a realistic shot of moving up in the standings, but each win pushes them a little closer towards securing home court advantage for the first round of the playoffs — they’re sitting 1.5 games ahead of the Hawks for that honor right now.

Luckily for the Knicks tonight, they should have Nerlens Noel back. Still, Taj Gibson might present the best matchup to body up Nikola Jokic, at least at first.

The Nuggets will be without PJ Dozier, which means their guard rotation is really hurting. That could open the door for Derrick Rose, RJ Barrett, Alec Burks, Immanuel Quickley, and Reggie Bullock to feast, especially when you consider that Michael Porter Jr. is the starting small forward as well, and not exactly a defensive asset himself.

Randle’s drawing a tough assignment on the other side in Aaron Gordon, and the Nuggets are a smart team, so they’ll probably throw doubles at him early and often. It’s going to be up to Randle to get his teammates going, and then for said teammates to make their shots. With the monumental hot streak the Knicks are currently on shooting from deep, that hopefully won’t be much of an issue.

The game’s tonight at 9 PM on MSG. Get some coffee brewed up, and come hang with us on Twitter!