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Phoenix Suns vs. Denver Nuggets Game Preview: Breathe in the Mile High Air

By Ray Hrovat

The second game of the Suns back to back to back this week takes them to Denver to face a banged-up Nuggets squad. George Karl's Nuggets are missing leading scorer Danilo Gallinari and leading rebounder Nene Hilario to injury, and have won only 2 of 6 games this month.

Steve Nash and the Suns will attempt to bounce back from cold long-range shooting against the Warriors in Oakland last night. Suns starters shot only 4-18 from behind the arc, and the offense again stagnated down the stretch as the Suns fell to 13th place in the Western Conference with a 102-96 loss.

As the Suns near the halfway point of the season (this will be their 29th game out of 66) and the trade deadline is only a month away, they don't have much time left to make a move in the standings before it's time to focus even more attention on next season, and possibly make more roster moves.

Will the Suns give us something to love in this game on Valentine's Day? Or will Suns fans take a walk down lonely street to Heartbreak Hotel?

The Nuggets are the league's highest scoring team at 103.9 points per game, and play with the fastest pace. Suns fans who have been watching their matchups with the Nuggets are well-acquainted with the Nuggets' fast, explosive offense. In the last three regular season games between the teams, the Nuggets put up 138, 132 and 116 points, then ran the Suns into the ground twice this pre-season for good measure.

Injuries to Gallinari and Nene will help the Suns cause, but the Nuggets are still a dangerous team. They just snapped a 5-game losing streak but those losses were to the Lakers, Blazers, Rockets, Mavs and Warriors, all of whom the Suns are looking up at in the standings.

Probable starters:

  • Steve Nash vs. Ty Lawson
  • Jared Dudley vs. Arron Afflalo
  • Grant Hill vs. Corey Brewer
  • Channing Frye vs. Kenneth Faried
  • Marcin Gortat vs. Kosta Koufous
FG 3PT FT Rebounds Misc
G M M A Pct M A Pct M A Pct Off Def Tot Ast TO Stl Blk PF PPG
Danilo Gallinari 25 32.9 5.2 11.7 44.7 1.4 4.5 31.3 5.2 5.8 89.0 0.7 4.5 5.2 2.6 1.6 1.2 0.6 1.9 17.0
Ty Lawson 25 34.6 5.9 12.8 46.4 0.9 3.0 31.1 3.0 3.8 78.9 0.9 2.6 3.5 6.5 2.4 1.5 0.0 1.6 15.8
Al Harrington 28 26.9 5.6 11.9 47.6 1.5 4.6 32.3 1.9 2.7 71.1 1.1 4.8 5.9 1.3 2.0 1.1 0.3 2.8 14.7
Nene Hilario 23 30.6 5.2 10.0 52.0 0.0 0.1 0.0 3.0 4.8 63.6 1.6 6.2 7.8 2.0 2.6 1.2 0.8 2.2 13.4
Arron Afflalo 25 30.1 3.9 9.1 43.2 1.2 3.2 38.3 2.5 3.1 79.5 0.6 2.0 2.6 1.6 1.3 0.6 0.2 2.2 11.6
Andre Miller 28 29.5 4.1 8.7 47.1 0.4 1.4 30.0 2.0 2.7 76.0 0.8 3.0 3.8 6.6 2.3 1.2 0.2 1.7 10.7
Rudy Fernandez 24 24.5 3.3 7.5 44.2 1.3 4.2 32.0 1.1 1.6 71.1 0.3 2.0 2.4 2.6 1.4 1.0 0.1 1.4 9.1
Corey Brewer 21 17.0 3.1 6.2 49.6 0.6 1.4 43.3 1.7 2.5 66.0 0.8 2.0 2.8 0.7 1.0 1.0 0.4 1.5 8.5
Timofey Mozgov 21 17.3 2.4 4.5 53.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.9 1.4 63.3 0.9 3.6 4.5 0.7 1.3 0.2 1.2 2.2 5.7
Kenneth Faried 8 11.8 1.6 3.4 48.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.6 2.6 61.9 1.5 3.4 4.9 0.4 0.6 0.0 1.1 1.8 4.9
Chris Andersen 20 13.4 1.6 2.9 55.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.4 2.1 64.3 1.3 2.7 4.0 0.1 0.5 0.7 1.1 1.6 4.6
Kosta Koufos 21 14.3 1.8 3.3 55.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.9 1.3 67.9 1.6 3.0 4.6 0.2 1.0 0.4 0.6 1.8 4.5
Jordan Hamilton 4 5.0 1.3 2.8 45.5 0.8 1.5 50.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.5 0.5 1.0 0.5 0.8 0.3 0.0 0.3 3.3
Julyan Stone 8 9.9 0.9 1.9 46.7 0.1 0.8 16.7 0.1 0.3 50.0 0.6 1.4 2.0 1.6 0.6 0.4 0.4 0.9 2.0

This will be another game in which the Suns' best chance will be to keep the pace moderate and limit the turnovers that the Nuggets can convert to running opportunities. The Suns simply don't have the athletes to get into a track meet with the Nuggets, especially in the thin air of Denver and having played the previous night.

Next Game

Phoenix Suns
@ Denver Nuggets

Tuesday, Feb 14, 2012, 7:00 PM MST
The Pepsi Center

Complete Coverage >


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