The Denver Nuggets will look to rebound after a bad loss when they host the struggling Houston Rockets on Friday night.
The Nuggets are sixth in the Western Conference, but they’re coming off a 119-107 home loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday. The injury-plagued Thunder ended Denver’s six-game winning streak despite having just nine players available for the game.
Denver should be ready for Houston, which has just seven wins in 33 road games, and not just because of the loss to the Thunder. The Rockets nearly stole a game from the Nuggets in Denver on Nov. 6, when they led by five in the final minutes. It took Nikola Jokic’s block of Jae’Sean Tate’s layup at the buzzer to seal a 95-94 win.
The Nuggets have a chance to sweep the three-game season series with the Rockets and wipe away the frustration of the loss two nights earlier.
The bright spot in the loss to Oklahoma City was the play of the reserves. They’ve struggled much of the season, but this time they outplayed the starters, save for Jokic. The bench outscored the starters 58-49 and was 11-for-21 from 3-point range; the starters missed their first 24 attempts from 3-point range before making their last one.
Bones Hyland and Bryn Forbes, who was acquired in January, combined to hit 10 of the 12 3-pointers.
“I think we all have some of those nights,” Forbes said. “Some nights, the bench isn’t as good as the starting unit. Not at all, we’ve got some very talented players on both groups, and I obviously believe in those guys just like they believe in us.”
Coach Michael Malone said an “awful” practice Tuesday carried over to Wednesday.
“We don’t usually practice, and we had practice,” Forbes said. “I think that was maybe what was tough about it.”
Houston has lost 11 in a row, including a 132-127 overtime loss to the Northwest Division-leading Utah Jazz on Wednesday.
The Rockets could be missing several players Friday. Dennis Schroder sat out Wednesday with a sprained right ankle sustained the night before, Eric Gordon didn’t play against the Jazz due to groin soreness and Tate missed the second half with left ankle soreness.
Despite those injuries, Houston took Utah to overtime.
“This team has a lot of fight and a lot of character and a lot of grit, and we’re learning,” coach Stephen Silas said. “It’s unfortunate that we lost the game, but that’s really the only unfortunate part.”
The Rockets have a knack for playing well against good teams. In addition to pushing Utah to overtime and nearly beating the Nuggets in November, they lost by three on the road against the Phoenix Suns, the NBA’s best team thus far, and by one point to the Los Angeles Clippers during their 11-game slide.
Houston’s last win came Feb. 2, 115-104 against the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Rockets are 1-15 in their past 16 games and have seven wins since Dec. 8, when they completed a seven-game winning streak that followed a 15-game losing streak.
–Field Level Media
