Cleveland- On the heels of their first victory of the season the Cleveland Cavaliers host the red hot Denver Nuggets. Denver will be playing their second game in as many nights, as they defeated the Chicago Bulls 108-107 Wednesday night. Meanwhile most of the talk surrounding Cleveland has been related to off the court issues.
Thursday night is Cleveland’s second opportunity to ignore the outside noise and focus on basketball. Cleveland made the most of things on Tuesday night when they had seven players reach double figures, shot 50% as a team and forced 22 turnovers against the Atlanta Hawks. That seems to be a recipe for success, but tonight’s competition is much more difficult.
The Nuggets are off to their best start since the 1985-1986 season, a season in which their first loss was against the Showtime Los Angeles Lakers, ironically the LeBron led Lakers are the only team to defeat this seasons Nuggets.
While the Cavaliers are off to their worst start since the 2001-2002 season, their defense is making it difficult to stay competitive. Cleveland has allowed an average of 117.9 points a game through seven games. The defensive effort was much better on Tuesday but Cleveland still allowed Atlanta to score 114 points.
Location: Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, Oh
Probable Starters:
Cleveland Cavaliers:
- Cedi Osman
- Rodney Hood
- Sam Dekker
- Tristian Thompson
- George Hill
Denver Nuggets:
- Gary Harris
- Torrey Craig
- Paul Millsap
- Jamal Murray
- Nikola Jokic
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