Two of the four best teams in the Western Conference face off on Thursday night.
Here's a look at the injury report.
INJURY REPORT
Denver:
Vlatko Čančar — OUT (Left Knee Surgery)
Aaron Gordon — PROBABLE (Right Foot Strain)
Nikola Jokić — PROBABLE (Left Hip Inflammation/Right Wrist Inflammation)
Jamal Murray — QUESTIONABLE (Right Knee Inflammation)
Zeke Nnaji — QUESTIONABLE (Right Adductor Tendinosis)
Los Angeles:
Kawhi Leonard — OUT (Right Knee Soreness)
Joshua Primo — OUT (Left Ankle Sprain)
The Denver Nuggets and the LA Clippers play for the fourth and final time this season in Los Angeles. Denver has a 2-1 lead in the regular season series.
The Clippers will be without Kawhi Leonard, who's been an MVP candidate this season. That's obviously a massive loss for LA, and they're just 3-4 without their superstar forward this year. The biggest injury-related question mark for Denver is Jamal Murray, who's missed six straight games with right knee inflammation. He's listed as questionable for Thursday.
Denver is 53-23 on the season. They're tied with the Minnesota Timberwolves for the No. 1 seed in the West and have a one-game lead over the third-place Oklahoma City Thunder.
There's a case to be made that Denver has the easiest schedule to close the year of any top-three team in the West. They play four below-.500 teams: the Atlanta Hawks, the San Antonio Spurs, the Memphis Grizzlies, and the Utah Jazz. Then there's the Clippers, but as mentioned, they'll be without Leonard. Finally, Denver hosts Minnesota in one of the most important games of the regular season.
Minnesota plays the surging Phoenix Suns (45-31) twice and the Los Angeles Lakers (44-33), who are fighting for their playoff lives as the 9-seed in the West. Oklahoma City plays the Indiana Pacers (43-34), the Sacramento Kings (44-31), the Milwaukee Bucks (47-39), and the Dallas Mavericks (45-30).
On paper, there's a firm pathway to sole possession of the one-seed in the West for Denver.
TUNE-IN: Thursday 8:00 p.m. MT, TNT/TrueTV and Altitude 2 TV, and Altitude Sports Radio 950 AM