In Houston's last home game of the season, the Rockets will face a Denver team trying to...
The status of Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, shooting against Alperen Sengun earlier this season, for Tuesday's game in Houston is unclear.The Rockets’ home finale on Tuesday will also be their last game of the season against a team that will still be playing after the Rockets’ season is over.
The Nuggets’ win against the Warriors on Sunday moved them within a win or a Grizzlies loss of clinching homecourt advantage through the Western Conference playoffs and the top seed for the first time in franchise history. As tight as most of the race for playoff positioning in the Western Conference has been, the Nuggets moved into the top spot in December and have not relinquished it. The Rockets are one win or Pistons loss from assuring they won’t have sole possession of the worst record in the league. Though they are locked in as one of the three teams with the best lottery odds, they could move to the third-worst record and a chance to fall as far as to seventh in the draft. But they have lost eight of their past nine games and are 5-5 in their past 10 home games after losing 17 of 19 in Toyota Center. They have lost their past 10 games against the Nuggets including three blowout losses this season with the Nuggets making 55.9 percent of their shots, the best shooting of any opponent against the Rockets this season. But the Rockets get one last chance to beat a playoff-bound team before finishing the season on the road in Charlotte and Washington.Nikola Jokic, the Nuggets’ two-time MVP center among the favorites to win it again, has missed the past three games with tightness in his right calf. The Nuggets will be extremely cautious with their most important player. Jokic’s unique ability to serve as his team’s primary playmaker as a center makes him especially difficult to replace. The Nuggets cannot just next-man-up their offense with someone else stepping into Jokic’s role, though Jeff Green’s perimeter shooting would allow the Nuggets to run a good deal of five-out offense. Green, who started on Sunday, made just 1 of 5 3s on against the Warriors, and just 28.4 percent this season. DeAndre Jordan started against the Suns, with Thomas Bryant getting the start against the Pelicans in the other two games Jokic has missed.Bringing the defense The Nuggets have spent the season trying to get their defense to more consistently be at its best, as will likely be necessary to be a championship contender. Without their usual offensive strength to carry them, they have shown that sort of defense in the past three games without Jokic, especially in Sunday’s win against the Warriors when Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson combined to make 7 of 30 3-pointers. The Nuggets have had the sixth-ranked defense in the NBA in the past three games. Overall this season, the Nuggets have had the 14th rated defense. The Rockets’ improvement has been on the offensive end, ranking 20th since the All-Star break. They were last in the NBA offensively before the break.The Nuggets’ and Rockets’ Porter Juniors won’t matchup, but have similar importance to their teams’ offense, especially if Jokic remains out. Rockets guard Kevin Porter Jr. has scored at least 20 points in his past four games, his longest streak of the season. His recent scoring surge, averaging 27.5 points on 52.8 percent shooting and 50 percent 3-point shooting since he went 3 of 12 in Cleveland, has been part of his improved 3-point shooting. In his past 28 games, he has averaged three 3-pointers on 40.7 percent shooting after averaging 1.8 3s on 30.9 percent shooting in his first 29 games. Michael Porter Jr. missed his previous game with a heel injury then had 29 points against the Warriors on Sunday. He is averaging 17.4 points on 41.6 percent 3-point shooting.
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