On a five-game winning streak while pushing toward the top of the Western Conference, the Denver Nuggets will try to overcome one of their early-season challenges.
The Nuggets will face the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night in Inglewood, Calif. The road has been unkind for the Nuggets, who are 6-0 in Denver and 2-2 away from home.
The game Wednesday will be the second of a three-game trip and part of a stretch of five of six games played away from Denver. The Nuggets earned a 122-108 victory at Sacramento on Tuesday and will face the Clippers 24 hours later.
“It’s exactly that; it’s just the road. It’s the intensity of the crowd that is working against you as opposed to what it was this whole last week (at home),” Nuggets coach David Adelman said. “… The Clippers are the Clippers, and they need a win. It’s crazy teams like L.A are under .500 and you look at what they have and what they can do nightly.”
It will be Denver’s second consecutive back-to-back set after the team earned home victories on Friday and Saturday over the Golden State Warriors and Indiana Pacers, respectively.
Nikola Jokic led the way against the Kings with 35 points, 15 rebounds and seven assists, while both Aaron Gordon and Jamal Murray returned to action. After both were given the night off Saturday, Gordon scored 17 points with seven rebounds, while Murray scored 23 points with eight assists.
Denver entered the fourth quarter with a slim 85-82 lead then shot 61.1% and scored 37 points over the final period.
The Clippers are on a five-game losing streak as they deal with continuity and player availability issues. Kawhi Leonard (ankle injury) has missed the past four games, and Bradley Beal is out with a hip injury.
Coach Tyronn Lue said Beal is set to miss multiple games while the team eagerly awaits Leonard’s return.
James Harden did his best to step up for the Clippers in a 105-102 loss at home to the Atlanta Hawks on Monday.
Harden scored 19 of his 35 points in the fourth quarter. He also had 10 rebounds and 11 assists for his seventh triple-double in a Clippers uniform to tie the franchise record. It was his 81st career triple-double.
“Just our attention to detail (has) got to be a little bit better,” said Harden, who kept his team alive in the fourth quarter by going 4 of 7 from 3-point range. “I think the difference between really good teams and teams that aren’t really good, it’s just the detail and the execution. And it hasn’t been our strong suit, so we just got to find ways to continue getting better at that.”
Ivica Zubac had 13 points with 12 rebounds for Los Angeles and now will face a formidable matchup inside against Jokic.
“We can’t even get out in transition because we’re not getting defensive stops,” Zubac said. “We’re giving up second shots, (and) it’s hard to get in transition. We can’t even run.”
