{"id":524464,"date":"2026-01-08T08:20:23","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T08:20:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/524464\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T08:20:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T08:20:23","slug":"denver-plays-atlanta-in-non-conference-matchup-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/524464\/","title":{"rendered":"Denver plays Atlanta in non-conference matchup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">Atlanta Hawks (18-21, ninth in the Eastern Conference) vs. Denver Nuggets (25-12, third in the Western Conference)<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Denver; Friday, 9 p.m. EST<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">BOTTOM LINE: The Atlanta Hawks visit the Denver Nuggets in a non-conference matchup.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The Nuggets have gone 10-5 at home. Denver ranks eighth in the Western Conference with 50.9 points per game in the paint led by Nikola Jokic averaging 15.0.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The Hawks have gone 11-10 away from home. Atlanta ranks second in the NBA scoring 17.6 fast break points per game led by Jalen Johnson averaging 3.9.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The Nuggets average 14.2 made 3-pointers per game this season, 1.0 more made shot on average than the 13.2 per game the Hawks give up. The Hawks average 118.4 points per game, 0.3 more than the 118.1 the Nuggets give up to opponents.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The teams play for the second time this season. The Nuggets won the last matchup 134-133 on Dec. 6. Jokic scored 40 points to help lead the Nuggets to the victory.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">TOP PERFORMERS: Peyton Watson is averaging 12.7 points for the Nuggets. Jamal Murray is averaging 24.1 points over the last 10 games.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Johnson is averaging 23.5 points, 10.3 rebounds and 8.3 assists for the Hawks. Nickeil Alexander-Walker is averaging 19.6 points over the last 10 games.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">LAST 10 GAMES: Nuggets: 5-5, averaging 122.4 points, 40.4 rebounds, 28.8 assists, 6.2 steals and 4.7 blocks per game while shooting 48.9% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 123.2 points per game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Hawks: 3-7, averaging 120.9 points, 41.9 rebounds, 32.7 assists, 9.3 steals and 4.3 blocks per game while shooting 47.5% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 122.5 points.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">INJURIES: Nuggets: Cameron Johnson: out (knee), Tamar Bates: out (foot), Nikola Jokic: out (knee), Spencer Jones: day to day (foot), Jonas Valanciunas: out (calf).<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Hawks: CJ McCollum: out (quad), Onyeka Okongwu: day to day (illness), N&#8217;Faly Dante: out for season (knee), Corey Kispert: out (hamstring).<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">___<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dataskrive.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Data Skrive<\/a> and data from <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportradar.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sportradar<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Atlanta Hawks (18-21, ninth in the Eastern Conference) vs. Denver Nuggets (25-12, third in the Western Conference) Denver;&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3781],"tags":[72395,1297,2889,7,301,187,3943,6,446,302,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-524464","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-nuggets","8":"tag-72395","9":"tag-article","10":"tag-athlete-injuries","11":"tag-basketball","12":"tag-denver","13":"tag-denver-nuggets","14":"tag-denvernuggets","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-nba-basketball","17":"tag-nuggets","18":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115858507422390727","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}