After spending Tuesday guarding one of the hottest players in the NBA, Denver’s Arron Afflalo has the privilege Thursday of guarding one of the best.
Miami’s Dwyane Wade is in town for tonight’s 8:30 matchup at Pepsi Center, where Wade will try to get Miami’s first win here since 2002-03, the year Wade led Marquette to the Final Four.
At Thursday’s shootaround, Nuggets coach George Karl said he will start Afflalo on Wade, but similar to Tuesday against Monta Ellis and Golden State, other Nuggets will help out on the opponent’s top scorer.
“I don’t think there’s any question we’ll try to keep more than one body on him,” Karl said. “Is that one-and-a-half? Two-and-a-half? Sometimes that comes from how well we execute what we want to do.”
Wade is sixth in the NBA with 26.8 points per game, and he scored 22 with five assists against Denver in the Heat’s win in Miami on Nov. 6.
“He’s one of the players in the league if you rated him on basketball skills in different areas, he doesn’t get Bs and Cs,” Karl said.
“He’s a great defender. He’s learned to be an excellent play-maker, he’s an orchestrator. And then there are those nights where you can’t cover him. He loves to take the big shot, likes to be involved and compete. Very seldom do you have that many areas where a player is special.”
Benjamin Hochman: 303-954-1294 or bhochman@denverpost.com
