After recording a much -needed victory on the road, Denver Nuggets hopes to secure a playoffs in his last home game in the regular season Friday night against Memphis Grizzlies.
Nuggets (48-32) is in fourth place in the narrow Western Conference on the way into Friday night’s game. They completed a four-game-glid by defeating Sacramento Kings 124-116 on Wednesday, one day after the team fired head coach Michael Malone and announced that it will not extend the contract for general manager Calvin Booth.
A victory over Grizzlies would almost guarantee that Denver will stay outside the Play-in tournament and remain on the right track to have a home competence advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
A game separates Nuggets from No. 8 seed, but if they win Friday and then Sunday at Houston they can start the playoffs at home.
Malone’s shooting with three games left during the season sent a shake through Denver the dressing room, and the players responded with a solid won on Wednesday despite Jamal Murray (Hamstring) missing their sixth straight game.
“I mean, when someone wants to wake up someone or change the energy, that’s probably what they do. In my country, if someone gets fired … Probably you are next (to go),” Nikola Jokic said after the victory over the kings. “So I think it definitely changed something, and they got the reaction they wanted, probably.”
Jokic can be the third player in the NBA story as on average a triple toddle for a whole season and joins Oscar Robertson and Russell Westbrook. Jokic, a center from Serbia, is an average of 29.8 points, 12.8 returns and 10.2 helps a game, figures ranked in the top three in the NBA in these categories.
Nuggets will get the advantage of playing a tired Memphis team. The grizzlies lost at home against Minnesota 141-125 on Thursday evening and released from the sixth seed to the seventh in the west.
Memphis, Timberwolves and Golden State have 47-33 items. Warriors have tiebreaker over both teams while Grizzlies has the edge over Minnesota.
It makes Friday night a big game for Memphis because a loss can release it to eighth place, which would mean to hit the Play-in game. A victory would pass the season series against Nuggets and give Grizzlies a chance to finish in the top four in the west.
Memphis is without beginner Jaylen Wells, who was hit by a seasonal broken wrist at Charlotte on Tuesday evening. He had surgery on the wrist but was on the team’s firearm on Thursday morning.
“He seems like he’s in a decent mood,” said teammate Vince Williams Jr.. “Everyone doesn’t know how he knows internally, but around us he is okay.”
Wells ended the season an average of 10.4 points one game, while yes morant leads the team at 23.2 after scoring 36 points in the loss to Minnesota despite playing in just 49 matches.
Jaren Jackson Jr. Is second in the team in points of 22.2 points, and Desmond Bane is third at 19.2.
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