The Nuggets will battle the Heat and the match up to watch will be the center battle between Nikola Jokic and Hassan Whiteside.
The Denver Nuggets are coming off a great win over the Toronto Raptors and Nikola Jokic had a huge part of the win. He was two points away from a triple double and was a big facilitator for the Nuggets in possibly their best win of the season.
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He will have a tough match up going against Miami as he will be defending the young Hassan Whiteside. Whiteside will give him a tough match up with his length and his defensive prowess.
However, Jokic can still be effective by stretching the floor. By getting opportunities away from the basket and taking mid range jumpers, it will force Whiteside to stray away from the rim leaving it vulnerable to be attacked by cutters like Gary Harris who Jokic can easily pass to with his talent. Whiteside is too good of a rim protector to not try to draw away from the basket and Nikola has the skill set to do this.
Denver will need to help the Joker on the defensive end of the floor. Whiteside is very strong, so they may need to slide someone like Millsap or even Chandler to double team him once in a while so Jokic doesn’t get beat up in the paint.
Whiteside likes to rely on his physicality to get his point in bunches, so it will be up Jokic and the Denver defense to force him into difficult shots and even defer to the other players around him to step up.
Next: Nikola Jokic showing slight defensive improvements
Jokic will have his hands full all night, but he should be up to the task and it should be a very intriguing match up to watch with their two styles of play.