2K sports welcomes you to the following presentation of the [Music] NBA good afternoon and welcome to a midday Edition of the NBA on 2K sports hope you're enjoying the weekend so far hi everyone I'm Brian Anderson alongside gra Hill and Clark Kellog our reporter is Ally leforce allly take it away well Nicole AIC has transformed his conditioning he said when I first started playing back in Serbia I couldn't do a push-up and when I came here I was probably the worst conditioned player in the league I lost a lot of weight and I feel much better to be honest I don't run faster but I can play a lot longer that's what matters right yeah it helps for sure thanks Ally now Denver's starting five Porter Jr and Gordon at the three and the four Murray and Caldwell Pope are the backourt pairing and it's jic in at to five and for the Hornets roier out on the wing with Hayward miles Bridges is out there with Mason plumbley and it's V in at the point guard position and Clark you can make a case that the Hornets were the best passing team last season ba let's go to the numbers I mean they average the most assist per game in the league and it's not just one guy this is a team that's full of guys who can drop dimes so the nuggets with the tip here's Murray outside Porter to the inside here's Jin cash assisting on the play was Porter boy good Vision that time from Michael Porter Jun saw the wide open teammate and then got the pass to him right on out they're going to turn it over they couldn't get it in bounds in time nuggets [Applause] ball stolen by ball and there's the 8C violation as they can't get it across half courter time nugget [Applause] ball here's Caldwell Pope Murray shot is good yeah first and foremost he's a pass first team player is called will pop love seeing that that'll be a 5c inbound violation nuggets [Applause] ball shot from the inbound and it's good as he snugs it right through the net extremely accurate from the mid-range Caldwell P knows he has the touch to score from there they're going to turn it over they could get it in bounds in time nuggets ball and about a minute gone in the first quarter Murray no good with the defense absent that was a great opportunity but no go and that's going to be a turnover they call him for the 8 seconds nuggets ball the nuggets have gone three of four off to a nice start even as a forward Gordon Hayward can run the offense gra hey ba he is a tremendous passer hayward's average over five assists a game during a season having Gordon in the front Court really helps with ball movement yeah you know he usually makes you pay from that range now pluming and they call the 8sec violation too much time getting it up Court ball and just around a minute and a half into this first quarter here's jic Second Chance shot and the layup is up end look this package that joic has Instinct length timing you don't have to jump really high if you got those things working for you to be effective as a rebound unable to get the ball in bounds and they got called for a 5sec violation outside quter pass to Caldwell Pope back to Porter and around two minutes played here in the first quarter Murray from outside cash was Porter Murray's got five they're starting to P away here as their shots keep falling I AG big run taking place right now it looks to be the beginning of the end now a timeout called by Charlotte th despite missing Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr Denver managed to finish sixth in the west last year and you know the reason they did that was because of the MVP Nikolai yic I mean he was the guy who carried them to that sixth place finish in the west don't forget about role guys like Aaron Gordon and Bones Highland they stepped up and played well but it was joic the Joker that carried that team to the hikes they got [Applause] to [Music] [Applause] they're going to turn it over they couldn't get it in bounds in time nuggets ball [Applause] quarter against Hayward outside Murray from downtown the offensive rebound joic gets the bucket really taking charge of the game largely with a detailed interior attack and you know that involves pounding it inside many points as you can right at The Rim that demoralizes [Applause] team now if you're just tuning in we've played about two and A2 minutes here in the first