The Denver Nuggets face their fourth playoff team in five games at home tonight as they battle the Thunder. Oklahoma City not only has two of the top five players in the league in Durant and Russell Westbrook, but they also have quite a bit of talent to back up those two. While there hasn’t been a lot of apparent change on court between former coach Scott Brooks and his replacement Billy Donovan , they are currently the second most potent offense in the league, trailing only Golden State, with an amazing offensive rating of 109.4. More surprisingly for a team that gives regular rotation minutes to Enis Kanter , OKC also ranks eighth in defensive rating at 100.2.
No doubt the Nuggets face an uphill battle tonight. In a bit of good news, center and all around giant man Jusuf Nurkic will return to the line up tonight on a minutes restriction. Even given the small sample size, his Drtg betters that of the team by more than 13 points, boding well for Denver’s ability to defend the paint moving forward. I’m sure that the Nuggets will take even a little Juka over none at all.
