San Antonio Spurs @ Denver Nuggets

Pepsi Center
12/18/12, 8:00pm Spurs Time
TV: FSSW - RADIO: 1200 AM WOAI, KSPN

The San Antonio Spurs take on Denver Nuggets 8:00 pm CT at the Pepsi Center in Denver. The Spurs are coming off disappointing loss against the number one team in the NBA, the Oklahoma Thunder. Meanwhile, Denver has had two days of rest and their last game was a shellacking of the lowly Kings .

Let's take a look at Denver's 13-12 record. 3 of those 12 losses came at the hands of the League's upper tier teams, the Spurs, Heat and Knicks. The other 10 came from upper middle teams such as the Warriors, Timberwolves, Hawks, Jazz and Lakers. So the 13-12 record signifies that the Nuggets are capable of defeating lower rung teams but struggle against the upper echelon. They may be gaining some traction though after a convincing defeat of the invading Grizzlies and a whooping of the Kings at Sacramento. Perhaps this is all Karl's team needed. That and to run into the 2nd most efficient offense in the league, the Spurs.

The Silver and Black will tiredly enter tonight's contest. These road weary warriors will have warred recently 6 games out of 7 on foreign courts. After tonight's game they will have a nice 4 game stead on home court but they have to get through tonight first.

Battle of Position

Point Guard: Tony Parker vs Ty Lawson

Tony Parker is 3rd for Point Guards in PER, Ty Lawson isn't even top 10.

Advantage: Tony

Shooting Guard: Gary Neal vs Andre Iguodala

Which Gary Neal will show up? The one were no one notices that he is on the court or the one that is so lovingly nicknamed Gary "MFing" Neal in this household.

Advantage: Andre Iguodala

Small Forward: Danny Green vs Danilo Gallinari

Gallinari is a good starting Small Forward for a upper-middle team in the league. Is Danny Green even a small forward? If Danny is hitting his 3's I would give him the nod but not until I see them.

Advantage: Gallinari

Power Forward: Tim vs Kenneth Faried

Faried is scrappy, Tim is the GOATPUFF.

Advantage: GOATPUFF

Center: Tiago Splitter vs Kosta Koufos

Coach Karl likes bringing McGee off the bench. Tiago is warming up finally to the NBA lights.

Advantage: Tiago

Bench Mob: Manu?, DeColo, Diaw, Mills, Blair? vs Javale McGee, Corey Brewer, Andre Miller

Spurs bench has been in flux lately, Nuggets have a pretty good one.

Advantage: Nuggets

MOJO? No, No MOJO

Lineups Starters PG: Tony Parker SG: Gary Neal SF: Danny Green PF: Tim Duncan C: Tiago Splitter Key Bench Players Manu Ginobili Boris Diaw Stephen Jackson Head Coach Gregg Popovich			Lineups Starters PG: Ty Lawson SG: Andre Iguodala SF: Danilo Gallinari PF: Kenneth Faried C: Kosta Koufus Key Bench Players JaVale McGee Andre Miller Corey Brewer Head Coach George Karl

Denver Nuggets perspective can be found here: Denver Stiffs

San Antonio Spurs Tickets

Game Prediction: Spurs by 3, Vegas says Nuggets by 2.5

Game Previewers Prediction Records & points off per prediction

Wes Thorne 7-1* (-1, 0, 23, 2, -8*,1, 28, 10) *@MIA

Joe deLarios 6-1 (-1, 3, 5, 0, 1, 6,-11)

Racm 1-3 (-25, -14, -5, 15)

Stijl 1-1 (-12, 11)

Fred 1-2 (3,-8)

CapHill 1-0 (13)

As always Tony must dominate Fisher, and NBA league pass is recommended for those who are willing to pony up the cash. Almost every Spurs game will be broadcast there, which is especially helpful for those of us who aren't in the San Antonio area. Please don't post links to illegal game feeds in the game thread. Links to illegal feeds are not permitted on SBNation, but you can probably find them out there on the internets if you're resourceful and desperate.