A 1-2 road trip left a sour taste in the Nuggets’ mouth as the team fell twice in a row to the Memphis Grizzlies after gutting out a win in Minnesota. Now, the Nuggets can focus on turning the corner and hopefully gaining some more early season wins as they begin a five game homestand that will see them play Houston, Miami, Indiana, Atlanta and Portland.

The Rockets are not a good team with just a 1-7 record. Led by forward Christian Wood, Houston has struggled to get any traction this season. They are in the midst of a five-game road trip that saw them lose back-to-back games against the Lakers before falling in Phoenix on Wednesday. Houston concludes their road swing on Sunday night at Golden State – and if the Nuggets have anything to say about it, the Rockets will remain winless on the road this season and will have lost seven straight contests.

The Basics

Who: Houston Rockets (1-7) at Denver Nuggets (4-4)

Where: Ball Arena, Denver, CO

When: 3:00pm MT

How to Watch: lmao

Rival Blog: The Dream Shake

The storylines surrounding the Nuggets largely remains the same. Denver’s bench has been mostly atrocious, but coach Michael Malone has been doing a lot more lineup experimentation and it seems like he is figuring out what works (Bones) and what doesn’t (the two Greens together).

Michael Porter Jr. continues to struggle from the field. He is shooting a dreadful 21.7% from three and just 36.4% from the field as a whole. This is not the MPJ we know and love nor is it remotely close to the one that the Kroenkes will be handing hundreds of millions of dollars to over the next several years. It will never be the time to sell MPJ stock, but until he does find his shot again his career-high averages in assists and steals while continuing to provide a decent number of rebounds has been productive for the team.

Sensational rookie Bones Hyland is poised to get more minutes; today would be a great day for him to break the 20-minute barrier again and inject more life into Denver’s second unit.