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Game Preview #80: San Antonio Spurs @ Denver Nuggets

I'm tired of losing to all these teams we should be winning against.

Here's your FOGAFINI-style preview after the jump.

I'm exasperated and badly need a win. Then again, who doesn't? CIA Pop, maybe.

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San Antonio Spurs @ Denver Nuggets
Where: Pepsi Center - Denver, CO
When: April 10, 2010; 8:00 PM Spurs time
Watch: NBA TV; KENS HD


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How They Stack Up
28-12 Home 33-6
20-19 Road 19-21
101.1
Offense 106.6
96.2 Defense 102.1
47.3 FG% 47.0
36.0
3-pt% 36.6
74.5
FT% 77.4
42.7
Rebounds 41.5
13.0
TOs 13.7
6-4 Last 10 5-5
Lost 2
Streak Won 4
2nd, Southwest Position 1st, Northwest

Country/Time Zone Game Time
Argentina 10:00 PM
West Coast
6:00 PM
Philippines 9:00 AM
Central Europe 3:00 AM
Palestine/Egypt 4:00 AM
East Coast 9:00 PM
Surprisingly Balmy
7:00 PM
Perth, AUS 9:00 AM
Tokyo, JP 10:00 AM
Sydney, AUS 11:00 AM

Spurs
(48-31)
Matchups

Nuggets
(52-27)

Garrett Temple
of Doom

Point Guard

Temple's a +/- savant but Chauncey's just better and doesn't make too many mistakes.

Advantage: Nuggets


Chauncey Billups
Papa Smurf

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Manu Ginobili
S'Nova

Shooting Guard

Um... hey everyone else. Let's not let Manu's superhuman efforts go to waste this time, shall we?

Advantage: Spurs


Arron Afflalo
Underrated

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Richard Jefferson
Princess Peanut

Small Forward

RJ, please don't return to suck mode again. It's almost the playoffs.

Advantage: Nuggets


Carmelo Anthony
Stop Snitching

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Tim Duncan
Merlin

Power Forward

All this talk about "resting Timmy" has me confused because obviously, we'd be hard-pressed to win a game without him playing significant minutes. No one's going to lay down for us, that team be playoff-bound or not.

Advantage: Spurs


Johan Petro
Another French

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Antonio McDyess
Dice

Center

Dice pretty much laid an egg last night. Things won't be easier against the hulking Nene.

Advantage: Nuggets


Nene
A Bird

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DeJuan Blair
Grizzly Blair

Bench & Role Players

Bonner's the only one who showed up for the bench. TP did for the first-half but got lost somewhere along the way. Meanwhile, the Nuggets' bench led by JR Smith, Ty Lawson and the Bird Man are an active bunch.

Advantage: Nuggets


JR Smith
"Thuggets" Personified

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Gregg Popovich
Wino

Coach

George Karl's out. Still, let me just say that too much playing it safe can also backfire.

Advantage: Spurs


George Karl
Excused
images via yahoo.com

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Other Factors

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Intangibles

We lost to Memphis at home and are on a 2-game losing streak.

Advantage: Nuggets

Mojo

Nothingness.

Advantage: None

Winner:

Nuggets. Yes, you read that correctly. I'm tired of picking the Spurs to win.

Keys To The Game

  • Defense - Denver's been better than us at scoring points all season long. If we can't get stops, we lose... it's really that simple. But simple and easy are two different things - The Nuggets get to the line more than any team in the league, and this means that our young guys are going to have to be smart about their decisions on the defensive end.
  • Ball and Player Movement - The Spurs are a much better team when they confuse the hell out of opposing defenses. The two-man game isn't the kind of movement I'm talking about here... I'm talking multiple cutters, misdirection and crazy double screens. Make them work on the defensive end, and stopping them will be a bit easier.

Strength of Schedule

Finally the FOGAFINI ends. No rest for the weary as we play the Wolves after a days' rest and then close the season against bitter rivals, the Dallas Mavericks - who, I might add, locked up the division title.

Last Time They Met

A 111-92 win at Denver on February 11 shows we can take the Nuggets on their home floor. But after these last two games and a punishing schedule? I doubt it.

Some Other Reading

Grizzlies

Denver Stiffs - This is the Nuggets' SBN home. There's some good stuff here, and you can probably expect a few of them to wander over here.
Roundball Mining Company - The Denver TrueHoop affiliate. Looks like pretty good stuff, but I didn't have time to read up, since this game is going to be so early.

Spurs

48 Minutes of Hell: The best TrueHoop team blog is now even better, after adding two new writers. Congrats to Jesse and Andrew, who are already doing good work.
Project Spurs: Check out their podcast recaps of the game, plus the well-written articles.


Where to Tune In

TV

This game will be aired nationwide on NBA TV. If you have cable or satellite, you'll have to look up your individual channel. And of course, there's always League Pass for the haves. For the have nots, read on.

Online

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. In fact, nobody can stop you from googling "atdhe". You can also shoot an email to poundingtherockmail@yahoo.com for more assistance.

NBA League Pass audio is still free this year, so check it out.

Radio

If you're in the San Antonio area and aren't near a TV, tune in to WOAI (1200 AM).