The NBA’s season has just begun, and the best of the teams have already had a good start to the season. The Denver Nuggets, the defending champs, are out to a 4-1 start and are 3rd in the Western Conference.
The NBA’s In-Season Tournament is also starting, as well. Seven games will be played on Friday night, and nine more games will be played next Friday. The Denver Nuggets are slated to face off against the Dallas Mavericks in Ball Arena on Friday night.
The Mavericks are currently 4-0 and are one of two undefeated NBA teams, the other being the Boston Celtics. Dallas has done a great job building a team around NBA superstar Luka Doncic, as they have Kyrie Ivring in the backcourt to complement his playmaking abilities.
Dallas has currently the 19th best defensive rating, which is nowhere near as close as Denver’s fourth best defensive rating.
Offensive rating, though, is a whole different story. The Boston Celtics are far ahead of the pack in first place, but the Mavericks are in second place in that statistic. Denver is 12th ranked in that category, which should rise a bit throughout the rest of the season.
Dallas has a great team, and Denver’s defense will have a hard time trying to keep up with whatever Dallas throws at them offensively. The same could be said the other way, too. No one on the Mavs’ roster will be able to defend Jamal Murray or Nikola Jokic, as both should have great games, especially being at home.
The Denver Nuggets are one of the title favorites and the Dallas Mavericks are trying to contend as well, which should make for a great game to start of Denver’s first game of the In-Season Tournament.
The other teams that the Nuggets are facing in the In-Season Tournament are the Los Angeles Clippers at home on November 14th, away in New Orleans Pelicans on November 17th, and finally away facing the Houston Rockets on November 24th. The In-Season Tournament won’t be easy, as the Mavericks, the Clippers, and the Pelicans are all trying to make a postseason push come April.
The Denver Nuggets and the Dallas Mavericks will play against each other at 8 p.m. on Friday and will be shown on ESPN on television.
There have also been injury reports for the game as well. Even with some injuries to players, it still should be a competitive game all in all.
If I were to predict the score, I’d have to say Denver wins 113-110, a close game that will come down to the wire in the fourth quarter.