Two teams quite familiar with one another meet for the fourth time in less than six weeks when the Denver Nuggets visit the Sacramento Kings on Thursday night.
The matchup of two of the league’s triple-double leaders was the result of schedule additions made in the wake of teams failing to advance into the conference semifinals in the NBA Cup.
The Nuggets tied for second place in West Group C, going 2-2. They also had a home matchup with the Houston Rockets added next Monday.
Meanwhile, the Kings took last place in West Group A, going winless in four games. They will visit Minnesota on Sunday in their other add-on game.
Denver has taken two of three from Sacramento in a season series that began with a 130-124 Nuggets home win Nov. 3. Denver also won 122-108 on the road Nov. 11 before the Kings exacted a measure of revenge with a 128-123 victory in Colorado on Nov. 22.
Neither Russell Westbrook, the NBA career leader with 207 triple-doubles, nor Nikola Jokic, who ranks third with 175, added to his total in the earlier head-to-heads. Each had a double-double all three times, however, with Westbrook averaging 20.3 points, 9.3 assists and 8.7 rebounds and Jokic putting up 37.7 points, 9.3 assists and 11.7 rebounds.
Westbrook added to his triple-double total when he contributed 24 points, 14 assists and 12 rebounds in the Kings’ 116-105 loss at Indiana in their most recent action Monday. It was the 37-year-old’s fourth triple-double of the season.
“Russ is a winner. That’s what he is. He has a winner’s spirit,” Kings coach Doug Christie gushed to reporters after the defeat. “Everything about his career and how he’s come along and everything speaks to winning. He just continues to fight. That’s what I appreciate about him. He’s the ultimate competitor.”
The nine-time All-Star started the Kings’ last 13 games, including the win at Denver when he helped power the upset over his former team with 21 points, 11 assists and six rebounds.
Now in his 18th year, Westbrook has increased his numbers across the board compared to last season with the Nuggets, bumping up his scoring average to 13.9 (up from 13.3), his assists to 7.3 (up from 6.1) and his rebounds to 7.0 (up from 4.9).
Jokic (29.2 points, 11.0 assists, 12.3 rebounds) missed what would have been a league-leading 12th triple-double this season when he had nine rebounds to go with 28 points and 11 assists in the Nuggets’ last outing, a 115-106 win at Charlotte on Sunday.
Denver has won three in a row and five of eight since Aaron Gordon (strained right hamstring) joined Christian Braun (sprained left ankle) on the sidelines for the Kings’ recent visit. Both starters remain out indefinitely.
The Nuggets averaged 127.4 points over those last eight games, and Jamal Murray says the club has adjusted to Peyton Watson and Spencer Jones in the starting lineup.
“We just get up and down more,” Murray noted to the media after the Charlotte game. “Peyton is really lanky and really fast, really twitchy. Spencer plays super hard, crashing everywhere, giving up his body. Those guys going up and down everywhere is slightly different than (Gordon and Braun).”
