SACRAMENTO, Calif. — It’s now the Nuggets’ move.
Locked in a two-game miniseries with the Sacramento Kings, and after , adjustments are the name of the game.
So with Wednesday’s game now squarely in the team’s focus, Nuggets coach Brian Shaw talked about areas that needed to stay the same or improve, starting with his team’s defense on Kings center DeMarcus Cousins. Cousins worked hard to get 19 points, well under his scoring average, but was able to put numerous fouls on the Nuggets’ post players who were guarding him.
“I thought we did a pretty good job (on Monday) of trying to make him score over our bigs,” Shaw said. “He’s not an overly athletic big man, so we just tried to use our length to stay between him and the basket. The bigger problem is playing defense as a whole without fouling as much, and containing some of the other guys that were able to come in.”
On Monday, Sacramento got huge contributions from players off the bench, such as Carl Landry’s 14 points; Ramon Sessons’ 13 points and three assists; and Reggie Evans’ 14 rebounds. Those players got away from the Nuggets more than the Kings’ main stars did.
“So, do the same job on Rudy Gay and DeMarcus Cousins, and do a better job on those other guys,” Shaw said.
The Nuggets have all of their players available for the game, and nothing has changed in terms of minute restrictions.
Christopher Dempsey: cdempsey@denverpost.com or twitter.com/dempseypost
