The Denver Nuggets defended home court effectively against the Memphis Grizzlies.
The Denver Nuggets came out wanting to make up for their debacle in Houston the other night. They did by defeating the Memphis Grizzlies soundly.
Nikola Jokic has possibly his best all around game of the season yet which immensely helped Denver. He had 28 points, 13 rebounds and was two assists shy of a triple double as he came away with eight assists.
What makes this even more impressive is he was going up against Marc Gasol. Someone who is also a top 10 center.
Other key performers included Gary Harris, Jamal Murray, Kenneth Faried and Trey Lyles.
Harris had the highest box plus/minus out of the Nuggets as he finished with a plus 21 to go along with 15 points and an outstanding four steals.
Murray had a bit of a bounce back game as he finished with 15 points and six rebounds.
The Manimal, Kenneth Faried, finally got meaningful minutes and finished with 14 points and shot a perfect 100% from the field while coming away with nine key rebounds.
Trey Lyles was also effective in this game. While his stats may not show it, he made the right play when needed and it paid off in the long run. The Lyles trade may not have been such a bad idea after all.
The Nuggets had a solid outing as a defensive unit as they held the Grizzlies to 92 points and forced them to shoot 49.3% from the field as a team. The Grizzlies only came away with three blocks in total on the night while the Nuggets had four.
Where Denver really pulled away though was the battle on the glass. The Nuggets out-rebounded the Grizzlies 50-23 and this was a huge reason for the win.
There were multiple key aspects from the night. The Nuggets will look to convert this momentum into something positive as they have an easy stretch of games coming up.
Next: How Denver can stay competitive
Denver will take on the division rival, Utah Jazz, on November 28.