{"id":391808,"date":"2025-11-20T08:11:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T08:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/391808\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T08:11:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T08:11:16","slug":"rockets-host-nuggets-friday-for-nba-cup-group-stage-matchup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/391808\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockets host Nuggets Friday for NBA Cup group stage matchup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Denver Nuggets<\/a> (11-3, second in the Western Conference) vs. Houston Rockets<\/a> (10-3, third in the Western Conference)<\/p>\n

Houston; Friday, 9:30 p.m. EST<\/p>\n

Rockets -2; over\/under is 234.5<\/p>\n

BOTTOM LINE: The Houston Rockets face the Denver Nuggets in an NBA Cup in-season tournament group play matchup.<\/p>\n

The Rockets have gone 3-2 against Western Conference opponents. Houston ranks seventh in the NBA with 53.4 points in the paint led by Alperen Sengun<\/a> averaging 12.0.<\/p>\n

The Nuggets are 9-2 in Western Conference play. Denver is second in the Western Conference with 47.3 rebounds per game led by Nikola Jokic<\/a> averaging 13.2.<\/p>\n

The Rockets make 48.8% of their shots from the field this season, which is 3.8 percentage points higher than the Nuggets have allowed to their opponents (45.0%). The Nuggets average 12.1 made 3-pointers per game this season, 2.1 fewer made shots on average than the 14.2 per game the Rockets allow.<\/p>\n

TOP PERFORMERS: Kevin Durant<\/a> is averaging 25.5 points and 3.4 assists for the Rockets. Sengun is averaging 28.0 points over the last 10 games.<\/p>\n

Jokic is averaging 29.1 points, 13.2 rebounds, 11.1 assists and 1.7 steals for the Nuggets. Peyton Watson<\/a> is averaging 5.0 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games.<\/p>\n

LAST 10 GAMES: Rockets: 9-1, averaging 123.9 points, 51.8 rebounds, 26.2 assists, 9.1 steals and 5.6 blocks per game while shooting 49.4% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 111.4 points per game.<\/p>\n

Nuggets: 8-2, averaging 123.2 points, 47.4 rebounds, 28.2 assists, 8.0 steals and 3.9 blocks per game while shooting 49.8% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 113.3 points.<\/p>\n

INJURIES: Rockets: Fred VanVleet<\/a>: out for season (acl), Dorian Finney-Smith<\/a>: out (ankle), Tari Eason<\/a>: out (oblique).<\/p>\n

Nuggets: Christian Braun<\/a>: out (ankle), Aaron Gordon<\/a>: day to day (hamstring), Julian Strawther<\/a>: day to day (back).<\/p>\n

——<\/p>\n

The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive<\/a> and data from Sportradar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2025 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Denver Nuggets (11-3, second in the Western Conference) vs. Houston Rockets (10-3, third in the Western Conference) Houston;…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":349722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[186283,3134,5723,3136,1260,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-391808","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-186283","9":"tag-denver-nuggets","10":"tag-espn","11":"tag-houston-rockets","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115581018731517822","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}