Despite suffering a slew of injuries to key players throughout the season, the Denver Nuggets have been deep enough at just about every position to stay afloat in the playoff race.
With just about every player back to full strength, the Nuggets may be hitting their stride just in time to fight for home court advantage in the Western Conference. They look to avenge their previous loss to Oklahoma City as Kevin Durant and the Thunder visit in Thursday’s best game.
Both teams stayed put at the trade deadline The Nuggets have traded Nene Hilario for JaVale McGee, while the Thunder stayed put and showed full confidence in their respective roster.
George Karl will now have the task of guiding the talented but boneheaded McGee.
In their previous meeting on February 19, Thunder players had all sorts of career bests and made history in a 124-118 overtime victory.
Durant scored a career-high 51 points, Russell Westbrook scored a season-high 40 points and Serge Ibaka came through with 14 points, 15 rebounds and a career-high 11 blocks. It was the first time in NBA history that teammates had a 50-point game, a 40-point game and a triple-double.
Arron Afflalo scored 27 points to lead seven players in double figures for Denver, which squandered a five-
point lead with 35 seconds to play.
The Thunder (32-10) may be looking forward to hitting the road after struggling at home in recent games, losing two of their last three at Chesapeake Energy Arena. After an unlikely loss to the Cavaliers, they blew an 11-point lead in the final 2 1/2 minutes to the Rockets.
Denver (24-19) is making a habit of turning games into nail-biters as five of its last six games have been decided by five points or less. They have won three of those contests.
Overall, the Nuggets have won six of their last eight contests and are just one game behind for the fourth seed in the Western Conference.