The first thing you need to do when handicapping this series is throw out the four regular season meetings. Denver won the first two, but that was before Kevin Durant arrived in Phoenix. Then the Suns won twice late in the season, but that was with the Nuggets sitting key players both times, including Nikola Jokic.

We know both teams have a ton of offensive firepower among their ranks, but they’ll each be coming off a three days' break in between series. That leads me to believe we could see a little rust here, at least early on.

No one is going to confuse Minnesota with Phoenix, but the Nuggets did just hold the T’wolves to an average of 105.4 points per game in the first round. For the season, Denver is #3 in the league in points allowed per game at home (109.8). The Under is 6-2 in the last eight games here at the Ball Arena.

Where Denver struggles at the defensive end is defending the rim. But Phoenix takes the fewest number of shots at the rim of any playoff team.

Both teams also rank bottom 10 in pace, so - with this being the first game of the series - I expect a “feeling out process” and fewer possessions than normal. 10*