The Denver Nuggets, formerly known as the Denver Rockets, are one of the founding teams of the NBA, however, the Denver Nuggets have not won a championship until now.

In recent years, Denver has also made a big deal, trading to Iverson that year, and Anthony formed a golden double gun, but it did not achieve very good results.

However, last year's outstanding performance by Jokic made people see the potential of the Nuggets again.

After the team traded Millsap, this year's interior strength definitely does not belong to any team, however, Millsap is also a shortcoming, lack of height, resulting in insufficient frame protection ability.

Fortunately, Jokic is positive enough to make up for some of Millsap's lack of rim protection.

Jameel Nelson, Will Barton, Wilson Chandler, Paul Millsap, and Nikola Jokic make up the Nuggets' starting five lineup.

Although they didn't have a superstar, they played real team basketball, and Jokic built around the inside to sit in the top four in the West since the start of the season.

Before the game began, the Nuggets studied the Rockets and Grizzlies' game records, as well as the style of play of Marc Gasol.

Compared with the Grizzlies' interior line, although Jokic is still a little tender now, Jokic is younger, no injury troubles, more athletic, just an offensive means, and a little more youthful than Marc Gasol.

Before the start of the game, D'Antoni was also more entangled, the Nuggets have shown such a strong momentum recently, and the fourth place in the West is enough to prove their strength.

Moreover, judging from the video materials, the Nuggets' interior impact is very strong, whether it is the rising star Jokic or the veteran Millsap.

This makes De Shuai a little worried, in the face of a strong team inside, the Rockets do not have a good way to restrain themselves, they can only continue to speed up the offense, but Jokic is young and physically much stronger than Marc Gasol.

Toyota Center, as in the past, half an hour before the start of the game, the gate was already crowded, and when it opened to enter, it was very good, and the stands were already full.

This time, something is a little different from the past, many fans actually bought Cheng Lei's LOGO jerseys, and some fans actually wore Cheng Lei's simple version of the sneakers directly.

You know, the hottest thing in the past two days is Cheng Lei's signature sneakers, and there are long queues in front of several specialty stores.

"This year's Nuggets are even stronger than last year!" Barkley said in the commentary table.

"Although there are no superstars, they play team basketball, and their defense is iron enough!" Kenyon Martin agreed.

Now this Nuggets team, almost every team that faces them dare not have any carelessness, they show really good competitive state, and every game, their attitude is very serious.

The Rockets faced the Nuggets, and the current Rockets were naturally the absolute main lineup.

As soon as the players walked in from the players' tunnel, the audience at the scene let out a thunderous shout, and the fans here are lively at any time.

After a brief pre-match warm-up between the two sides, the game officially began.

Jokic and Capela jumped the ball, Jokic was much taller than Capela, the two jumped at the same time, Capela did not have any advantage, so Capela decided to grab a jump.

As soon as the whistle blew, Capela jumped up directly.

Good guy, Capela also fought hard, and his efforts were not in vain, and he actually dialed the ball first.

The Rockets took the lead in winning possession.

Paul began to dribble the ball steadily across the half court and try the Nuggets' defense first, so Paul didn't rush to attack, but let his teammates run first.

It's obviously unwise to go head-to-head with the Nuggets inside, just like playing against the Grizzlies, so Paul's goal is clear, which is to start from the outside.

In the first round, it was naturally handed over to Harden to play, and Harden also looked very calm in the face of Barton's defense.

After two disguised dribbles, he suddenly picked up speed, dribbled directly with his left hand, and broke through.

Barton saw that Harden moved, directly accelerated, approached Harden physically, and took the initiative to start fighting against Harden's body.

Harden kept adjusting his rhythm, and suddenly he took a step back, opened the distance, and was ready to shoot.

If this were another team, seeing Harden make this kind of action, he would basically let Harden shoot so as not to be whistled for a foul, but the Nuggets didn't do this, and Barton rushed directly towards Harden.

When Harden saw that the opportunity was coming, he instinctively shook it and wanted to make Barton foul, but Barton slapped him very fiercely, directly with the ball, and knocked Harden to the ground.

Toot toot... The referee's whistle sounded.

However, this is just a normal confrontational foul, and Barton is really ruthless.

Two clear blood marks appeared on Harden's hands, and there was a large red patch on the back of his hand.

"I'm rubbing, it's so ruthless, if you keep fighting like this, Harden will have a psychological shadow!" Kenyon Martin said.

"Barton's idea is very simple, that is, he would rather foul than let Harden shoot, anyway, even if he sends it himself, the Nuggets' bench can also play like this!" Barkley said.

This style of play is obviously like the style of play of their time.

This ball still has an impact on Harden, Harden's free throws, obviously, there was a fluctuation, the first free throw was not scored directly, after walking a lap, he returned to the free throw line, slowed down for a while, and then made a good adjustment before throwing the ball.

The second penalty was knocked and bounced in.

"Brother Deng, are you okay?" Cheng Lei walked over and patted Harden on the shoulder and asked.

"This guy is so ruthless, my hand still hurts!" Harden grinned.

By the time the two had a brief conversation, the Nuggets were already on offense.

Nelson had a lot of experience waiting for the players to pass half court before finally dribbling past half court.

Wait until Jokic and Millsap are in position before they start preparing for the offense.

Jokic's range is also very wide, and after Millsap went up to help him block the pick-and-roll, Jokic pulled directly to the free throw line, and Nelson saw an opportunity and passed the ball directly to Jokic.

As soon as the arm was straightened, it was a lot higher than Capela, and the toe was a little higher, and the ball was thrown directly from the master.

Swish... Two points were scored cleanly.

"It's hard for the Rockets to fight now, and they can't defend Jokic at all!" Barkley said truthfully.

"It's so easy to shoot, as long as he receives the ball near the free throw line and holds it high, Capela is hard to defend!"

The Rockets originally wanted to take advantage of the chaos directly and play fast break directly before the Nuggets could react, but by the time the ball was released, the Nuggets' players had already retreated.

"It's so fast! It doesn't look like a young team! ”

"Fourth in the West, they have strength!"