The young Denver Nuggets bench gives the team a spark against Pacers

Denver Nuggets scouting report vs Indiana: Zeke Nnaji

Zeke Nnaji came in as the backup center and played extremely well in his minutes. He seemed to do a little bit of everything that a stretch big can do, he ran the pick-and-roll well and slipped screens to get open quickly in the lane, popped out for open looks in the midrange and beyond the arc.

Nnaji made some high-level plays and always seemed to be in the right spot on offense. He filled space when his guards attacked the rim, and flashed to the front of the rim when ball handlers were in trouble. He got a plethora of easy looks in the lane due to his off-ball work.

Nnaji give the Nuggets a backup hybrid center for the future. He finished well in traffic against some of the best young bigs in the eastern conference. He had such a strong first half, he scored eight of the Nuggets 11 points on a single run, even while being matched up against Myles Turner for most of that time.

In the second half, he came to life, scoring from beyond the arc, the midrange and the paint. He began popping out after he set screens and even was a spot up weapon in the corner. Zeke Nnaji finished with a career-high 19 points in 20 minutes of action.

Zeke played very well in his minutes defensively, and while he only finished with five rebounds, he fought hard on the glass and ensured Sabonis and Turner were not factors there. He made the right decisions on defense and played the pick-and-roll well. His length forced opponents to think twice about trying entry passes.

I would like to see him work on playing up higher on ball handlers and not allowing them that extra 6-to-12 inches that seem to make the difference.