The Matchup<\/p>\n
PositionNuggetsClippersAdvantagePGJamal MurrayKris DunnNuggetsSGJalen PickettJames HardenClippersSFPeyton WatsonKawhi LeonardClippersPFSpencer JonesJohn CollinsClippersCJonas ValanciunasIvica ZubacEvenBenchBruce Brown, Zeke Nnaji, Tim Hardaway Jr., Julian StrawtherNicolas Batum, Brook Lopez, Jordan Miller, Kobe SandersEven<\/p>\n
Injury report*: Nikola Jokic \u2013 out (knee), Aaron Gordon \u2013 out (hamstring), Christian Braun \u2013 out (ankle), Cameron Johnson \u2013 out (knee), Tamar Bates \u2013 out (foot); Kawhi Leonard \u2013 questionable (knee), Bradley Beal \u2013 out (hip), Bogdan Bogdanovic \u2013 out (hamstring), Derrick Jones \u2013 out (knee), Chris Paul \u2013 out (old & grumpy), TyTy Washington \u2013 out (G-League). *The Denver Nuggets official injury report was not available at the time of writing.<\/p>\n
The Three Things<\/p>\n
The thing to watch for: PWat vs The Claw<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/USATSI_27312411-1024x683.jpg\")
Mandatory Credit: Jonathan Hui-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
Leonard is listed as questionable tonight but the Clippers are well rested so I am thinking he\u2019ll play. Without the official Nuggets injury report we don\u2019t have any insight on whether they\u2019ll rest Peyton on the B2B like they did the last time they were in this scenario\u2026so we\u2019re rolling with optimism and are going to assume these guys play. If they do then I imagine they will spend the night directly matched up on one another. There\u2019s a little drama here, Peyton infamously said that he felt he could definitely disrupt Leonard in the playoffs last season after Kawhi destroyed the Nuggets in Game 2 with a crazy efficient mid-range game that resulted in thirty-eight points. Leonard never topped 30 again that series and the Clippers ultimately were eliminated in 7 games so there could be a little extra juice tonight with Kawhi getting his first crack at the Nuggets since (he was out in Denver and LAC\u2019s November 12th game this season).<\/p>\n
The thing to remember: Somebody else has to carry the scoring load<\/p>\n
Speaking of that 11\/12 game, that was the night Nikola Jokic put the Clippers through a clinic on his way to fifty-five points. While Joker is close to making his return (all eyes on next week when he is \u201cre-evaluated\u201d) he will not play tonight. The Clippers also have one of the better center duos in the league in Ivica Zubac & Brook Lopez so it\u2019s not like Joker was putting up those numbers simply because the Clippers didn\u2019t have anyone to battle with him. I don\u2019t think the Nuggets can count on Jonas Valanciunas giving them a similar performance from the starting center spot. Someone else will have to step up. The problem is LA is set up to take on Denver\u2019s wing scorers very well. They can stick Leonard on Watson, they have a superb defensive point guard in Kris Dunn to battle with Jamal Murray, they are big on the wings in general and they have plenty of size on their bench. Someone is going to have to step up tonight, if Denver is going to win they\u2019ll need a Jalen Pickett, Spencer Jones or other less heralded player to have a big night. <\/p>\n
The thing to bet: Jalen Pickett over 1.5 threes (+138)<\/p>\n
Dunn is on Murray, Leonard is on Peyton, the bigs are gonna bang with the bigs which means Jalen Pickett\u2019s primary defender will be James Harden. Like I said, one of these other guys who is going to get 30+ minutes is going to have to step up and my money is on Pickett being that guy. He also only played 15 minutes last night, so I expect he gets a lot of run tonight and takes (and makes!) more than 2 shots.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Denver Nuggets are jumping right back into the saddle after their victory last night against the Brooklyn…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3789],"tags":[877,7,561,559,187,532,762,560,529,4034,192,4032,251,135,4033,4031,6,253,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-571232","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-clippers","8":"tag-aaron-gordon","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-christian-braun","11":"tag-clippers","12":"tag-denver-nuggets","13":"tag-ivica-zubac","14":"tag-jamal-murray","15":"tag-james-harden","16":"tag-kawhi-leonard","17":"tag-la","18":"tag-la-clippers","19":"tag-laclippers","20":"tag-los-angeles","21":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","22":"tag-losangeles","23":"tag-losangelesclippers","24":"tag-nba","25":"tag-nikola-jokic","26":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115985481620463669","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571232","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=571232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}