The best player in the NBA takes on the team with the best record. Nikola Jokić and the 11-8 Denver Nuggets will be slight underdogs on Thursday, facing a 19-3 Cleveland Cavaliers squad pulverizing opponents throughout this nascent season.
Venue: Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse -- Cleveland
Time: 7 p.m. ET Thursday
TV: NBA TV
Streaming: Fubo (Get Access | Save $30)
The Cavs are a force, atop the Eastern Conference and second in the league in net rating. They are shooting 50.9 percent as a team, which is brain-melting stuff. For reference, the 73-win Warriors shot 48.7 percent in 2015-16. Under Kenny Atkinson, Cleveland is playing with a considerably faster pace (sixth) than prior years (an average ranking of 25.8 across the past six seasons).
Seemingly everyone on this team is off to a good start. Jarrett Allen has both the highest offensive and defensive rating among the regulars. Donovan Mitchell is still getting his points, and hitting the 3-ball at a career-best mark (40.2 percent). Darius Garland is having his most efficient season to date, at sterling 49.4/45/95.1 shooting splits.
Vegas is understandably high on these guys. On BetMGM, the Cavs are tied for the second-best odds (+525) to win the East and Atkinson is the current leader for Coach of the Year (-115).
The Cleveland defense forced a Jaylen Brown-less Celtics squad down to Earth on Sunday in a 115-111 win, holding the torrid defensive champs to 40 percent from the floor. The Cavs have the best plus-minus in clutch minutes, shooting 63 percent (!) from the field in the final five minutes of close games.
Denver is coming off a massive clutch win of its own -- a late rally in Tuesday's NBA Cup match with Golden State. The Nuggets scored 13 of the game's last 15 points. Jokić finished with 38 points. And in his second game back from a calf strain, Aaron Gordon scored 15 points while pulling down nine boards.
"It wasn't pretty, but in this league, it's not always going to be pretty," Michael Malone said, per The Athletic's Tony Jones. "We had some really good performances tonight. But, when you see Nikola doing what he did offensively, and then guarding pick-and-roll after pick-and-roll against Curry on defense, it has an effect."
Jokić has been MVP in three of the last four campaigns. He's somehow even better this season, with career-highs in points (30.1), steals (1.7), assists (10.4) and effective shooting percentage (62). And the team as a whole is showing pluck after an uneasy start. In its last five games, Denver is first in field goal shooting, third in assists and fifth in points. It still lacks on the other end -- 27th in total defensive rebounding rate, and the second-most points per game allowed in the West.
The Nuggets are 5-4 away from the altitude this season, while the Cavs are 12-1 at home.
All-time series: Nuggets lead 54-44. Denver's longest winning streak is nine games, which it held from 1981-85.