Thunder Look To Notch Fifth Straight Win In Denver

Oklahoma City’s in the midst of yet another winning streak, and they’ll hopefully bring that efficient play with them to Denver when they square off with the Nuggets (16-25) at 8 p.m. on Tuesday.

Here are a couple things to know about the game:

Nuggets love to upset

Denver is one of four teams to take down the Golden State Warriors this season, and these days that’s saying a lot. In fact, the Nuggets almost took down “Goliath State” twice this season.

Danilo Gallinari led Denver to a win over the Warriors on January 14, a game in which the Italian forward totaled 28 points and also made the key defensive stop on Steph Curry at the end of the game.

Gallinari scored 24 points just 10 days earlier when the Nuggets lost to Golden State in overtime. There’s no question the Nuggets have plenty of firepower in Gallinari, Will Barton, Kenneth Faried and Gary Harris, so it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise to see them score with some of the best teams in the NBA.

OKC successful against Denver

The Thunder are 2-0 against the Nuggets this season, with their most recent win coming back on December 27, a game in which Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook were simply too much to handle. Big-man Enes Kanter had a monster game as well with 21 points while also relentlessly crashing the boards.

OKC currently holds a 13.5 game lead over the Nuggets in the Northwest Division, so it looks like Denver will have an uphill climb if they want to pull off the feat of catching up to the Thunder.

Will triple-double streak continue?

Westbrook will come into Tuesday’s contest riding a two-game triple-double streak after notching 12 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists against the Timberwolves on Friday, then posting 13 points, 10 rebounds and 15 assists against the Heat on Sunday.

The all-star point guard is playing about as productive as humanly possible right now, and the Nuggets will have their hands full trying to slow him down.