Rockets vs. Nuggets When/where: 9 p.m.; Ball Arena, Denver.

TV/radio: ATTSW; 740 AM, 790 AM, 1010 AM (Spanish). So far: Rockets 15-45; Nuggets 38-21.

Lately: The Rockets come into Saturday’s game against the Nuggets with losses in eight of their past nine games. The Nuggets had a four-game winning streak snapped by the Warriors on Friday in San Francisco.

SCOUTING THE ROCKETS

The Rockets, who lost to the Clippers on Friday, are 4-7 in the second half of back-to-backs. They are 8-22 on the road with wins in 1 of their past 7 road games. They have lost their past four games in Denver, including this season’s first meeting with the Nuggets in the second game of the season. … Going into Friday’s game, the Rockets have been outscored by an average of 21 points and outrebounded by 16.5 in the two games against the Nuggets this season. … Allowing 13.2 second-chance points per game, the Rockets gave up 30 against the Nuggets last week with the Nuggets getting 18 offensive reboundswhile missing just 37 shots. … Kelly Olynyk led the Rockets in scoring with 23 points on 10-of-14 shooting in just 27 minutes against the Nuggets. He had averaged 17.4 points on 59.4 percent shooting in his first 15 games with the Rockets.

SCOUTING THE NUGGETS

The Nuggets had won 17 of their past 21 games before

losing to the Warriors on Friday. The Nuggets are 4-5 in the

second game when playing on consecutive nights, finishing a back-to-back at home just twice this season. In the

past three seasons, the Nuggets are a league-best 23-8 in

the second game of back-to-backs. … The Nuggets had

the best offensive rating in the NBA, scoring 123.4 points

per 100 possessions, in the four games since the seasonending injury to star guard Jamal Murray, winning all four

games going into Friday’s at the Warriors. … The Nuggets

are third in the NBA in offensive rating and rebounding

percentage, fourth in assist-to-turnover ratio. They allow

the fewest second chance points per game. … Center

Nikola Jokic’s 8.7 assists per game are tied for fifth in the

NBA. He leads the Nuggets in scoring, rebounding, assists

and steals per game. In the previous meeting with the

Rockets, he made 10 of 12 shots, getting the rebound and

scoring after the two shots he missed. … Guard Will Barton, who made 1 of 6 3-pointers in the first meeting with

the Rockets, was making 38.4 percent of his 3s as a starter

going into Friday’s game. … In his past 25 games before

Friday, forward Michael Porter Jr. has averaged 20.8 points

and 8.7 rebounds while making 57.8 percent of his shots,

45.8 percent of his 3s.

NUMBER TO NOTE

45 Free throws made by the Nuggets in two games against the Rockets (on 63 attempts), more than the Rockets have attempted (43).

INJURY/STATUS REPORT

Rockets: Guard Kevin Porter Jr. (health and safety protocols), guard John Wall (injury management), guard D.J. Augustin (sprained right ankle), forward David Nwaba (sprained right wrist), guard Eric Gordon (strained right groin), guard Dante Exum (right calf strain) and guard Sterling Brown (sore left knee) are out.

Nuggets: Guard Monte Morris (strained right hamstring) and guard Jamal Murray (left ACL surgery) and Will Barton (right hamstring strain) are out.