{"id":528173,"date":"2026-01-11T00:03:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T00:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/528173\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T00:03:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T00:03:20","slug":"preview-denver-nuggets-return-home-and-take-on-new-look-atlanta-hawks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/528173\/","title":{"rendered":"Preview: Denver Nuggets return home and take on new look Atlanta Hawks"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been over two weeks since the Denver Nuggets last played a game in Ball Arena on Christmas night. Since then they\u2019ve played seven games on the east coast and just about everyone got some sort of injury or another. Now they return to their friendly confines and face a team that is suddenly drastically different than they were back when the Nuggets were in Denver last. The Atlanta Hawks traded the face of their franchise, Trae Young, just two days ago in a blockbuster deal that officially kicked off the trade season. In return the Hawks bring in vets C.J. McCollum and Corey Kispert, but perhaps more importantly, they open the door to fully move into the Jalen Johnson era in Atlanta.<\/p>\n

The Basics<\/p>\n

Who: Denver Nuggets (25-12) vs Atlanta Hawks (18-21)<\/p>\n

When: 7PM MST<\/p>\n

Where: The Can. Denver, CO.<\/p>\n

How to watch\/listen: Altitude TV & Altitude Radio 92.5FM<\/p>\n

Rival blog: Peachtree Hoops<\/a><\/p>\n

The Matchup<\/p>\n

PositionNuggetsHawksAdvantagePGJamal MurrayDyson DanielsNuggetsSGChristian BraunNickeil Alexander-WalkerEvenSFPeyton WatsonJalen JohnsonHawksPFAaron GordonZaccharie RisarcherNuggetsCDaRon Holmes IIMouhamed GueyeEvenBenchBruce Brown, Zeke Nnaji, Tim Hardaway Jr., Jalen PickettKristaps Porzingis, Luke Kennard, Vit Krejci, Asa NewellEven<\/p>\n

Injury report: Jamal Murray \u2013 probable (ankle), Aaron Gordon \u2013 probable (hamstring), Christian Braun \u2013 probable (ankle), Bruce Brown \u2013 probable (knee), Spencer Jones \u2013 questionable (ankle), Nikola Jokic \u2013 out (knee), Jonas Valanciunas \u2013 out (calf), Cameron Johnson \u2013 out (knee), Tamar Bates \u2013 out (foot); Caleb Houston \u2013 doubtful (G-League), Nikola Djurisic \u2013 doubtful (G-League), Rayj Dennis \u2013 doubtful (G-League), N\u2019Faly Dante \u2013 out (knee), Trae Young \u2013 out (not with team). Note: Trae Young is still listed on Atlanta\u2019s injury report while C.J. McCollum and Corey Kispert are listed as out (trade pending) on the Washington Wizards injury report. It does not appear that the trade is fully finalized and so, as of now, I do not expect either McCollum or Kispert to play.<\/p>\n

The Three Things<\/p>\n

The thing to watch for: Jalen Johnson vs Peyton Watson<\/p>\n

\"\"Mandatory Credit: Michael Ciaglo-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n

Like I said in the open, this Johnson\u2019s team now in Atlanta. The 20th overall pick in 2021 started to blossom last season and has only got better since then. He\u2019s creeping up towards averaging a triple-double with his current 23\/10\/8 stat line and while he won\u2019t be making any All Defense teams soon, he\u2019s got length which allows him to be bothersome on the other end of the floor. His trajectory over his career is honestly not that much unlike what we are seeing from Peyton Watson right now on Denver\u2019s side. With injuries to key players across the board, Watson has taken on the role of one of Denver\u2019s primary scorers on offense and that has resulted in five straight games scoring over twenty points (and seven straight in double figures). Don\u2019t think the Nuggets will be trading the face of their franchise to make room for Peyton anytime soon, but for tonight at least Johnson vs Watson is a marquee matchup between some of the top guys on both rosters.<\/p>\n

The thing to remember: Atlanta didn\u2019t trade Trae because they needed C.J.<\/p>\n

Nothing against McCollum, he\u2019s a vet, an intelligent player and a great leader, but he\u2019s well past his Portland Trail Blazers days when he was the #2 guy on a perennial playoff team. He\u2019s nowhere near the talent level of Young, even when we add in Kispert. No, Atlanta traded Trae because he was owed $90 million over the next two seasons and the Hawks felt like their direction forward was better with some of their other young talents. Don\u2019t be surprised in Johnson isn\u2019t the only one who starts blossoming. Zaccharie Risarcher, the sometimes maligned 1st overall pick from last year, put up 25 points in the first game without Young while Nickeil Alexander-Walker didn\u2019t score a ton but put up as many shots as anyone on the roster. Without the ball flowing through Trae on every play guys are going to get more opportunities to show what they can do. Beware of the random Hawk killing Denver tonight. <\/p>\n

The thing to bet: Parlay Jamal Murray over 9.5 assists & Peyton Watson over 16.5 points (+234)<\/p>\n

A rare parlay on the TTB. As I said, Watson has been over 20 points for five straight games, meanwhile, since Nikola Jokic has been out Jamal Murray has taken on the role of lead distributor and has racked up 33 assists over the past two games. Both of these overs are extremely gettable if the Nuggets just keep playing the way they\u2019ve been playing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been over two weeks since the Denver Nuggets last played a game in Ball Arena on Christmas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3776],"tags":[877,676,208,3874,7,2726,561,187,677,2990,762,871,6,253,66,73031],"class_list":{"0":"post-528173","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-hawks","8":"tag-aaron-gordon","9":"tag-atlanta","10":"tag-atlanta-hawks","11":"tag-atlantahawks","12":"tag-basketball","13":"tag-cameron-johnson","14":"tag-christian-braun","15":"tag-denver-nuggets","16":"tag-hawks","17":"tag-jalen-johnson","18":"tag-jamal-murray","19":"tag-kristaps-porzingis","20":"tag-nba","21":"tag-nikola-jokic","22":"tag-sports","23":"tag-zaccharie-risarcher"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115873540077829715","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528173","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=528173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}