Denver Nuggets scorers have a solid history of torching the Utah Jazz

The Utah Jazz play the Denver Nuggets tonight, and look to return to their winning ways. While everyone knows that Karl Malone was one of the best scorers of all time, we often overlook the contributions of the Nuggets scorers. In the head to head match-up between these two teams who has hurt the Jazz the most? There have been 229 different Nuggets to get on the box score, but not all of them are Jazz killers. Here are the players who have had the biggest games against the Jazz!

This is sorted by # of 21+ point games, but if you go by PPG average, or Big game % you see that while there have been a lot of strong scoring forwards, no one hurt us more than Iverson. (#1 in both of those categories) The only saving grace was that he only played in 9 total games against the Jazz as a member of the Nuggets. Going down the list you see many impressive players. Another guy we forget about is Chris Jackson aka. Abdul-Rauf who has the Nuggets record against the Jazz with 51 points. He really stands alone in that single game high scoring list.

However, most people will see English, Issel, Anthony, Vandeweghe, Thompson, and Natt as the primary contributors to our occasional #UTAatDEN Demise.

If you look at the rest of Nuggets history with a "big game" against the Jazz you do find our favorite Jazz-killer.

The infuriating part here is that while Kleiza averages 10.63 ppg against Utah, he basically scored four times as much in a single game. No one else in Jazz vs. Nuggets history has come close to doing something ridiculous like that. Unless, well, we look at another stretch big in LaFrentz who dropped 31+ on the Jazz twice, while averaging 10.18 ppg against Utah. Rough. Or even worse, Foye who averages fewer than 10 ppg against the Jazz as a Nugget blasted off in one game for 26+ points.

Who has the highest PPG average against the Jazz, without scoring 21+ points in a single game? There are a few guys on the list that we all love.

• Winston Garland, 6 games, 13.83 ppg
• Bob Wilkerson, 12 games, 13.42 ppg
• Mark Jackson (yeah, that guy), 3 games, 13.33 ppg
• Juwan Howard, 7 games, 13.29 ppg
• and Andre Iguodala, 4 games, 13.00 ppg

Overall there have been some strong scorers against the Jazz. Can one of their players have a big game tonight? Probably the best candidates are Ty Lawson, Danilo Gallinari, and Wilson Chandler. Guys who can move around the court and hit open threes always hurt the Jazz. Especially when they are wearing a Denver Nuggets jersey.