It’s a busy holiday week for the Denver Nuggets. Fresh off an overtime win last night, the team hopped on a plane back to Denver to face the Phoenix Suns tonight. Next, the Nuggets will travel to Phoenix to take on the Suns at their arena as a nightcap to the Christmas list before ending the week with another home game against each other. The second B2B game, sandwiched between a long road trip and a Christmas game, may be the hardest to win, and the opponent won’t make it any easier. Now in the second year of the core team of Devin Booker, Bradley Beal and Kevin Durant, Phoenix is ​​still trying to find some consistency. With a record of 14:13, they didn’t get off to the desired start, but this team remains one of the most dangerous in the club due to their scoring chances. The Nuggets will need a focused effort (something they often lacked on their road trip) to come out with a W tonight.

The essentials

WHO: Denver Nuggets (15-11) vs. Phoenix Suns (14-13)

When: 8:00 p.m. MST

Where: The tin. Denver, CO

How to watch/listen: Denver Stiffs doesn’t tolerate piracy…unless it’s the romanticized 17th century kind. Altitude TV when available, NBA League Pass for those not participating in the Nuggets market, Altitude+, 92.5 FM Altitude Radio. Get a touch of men’s-only gray, little stilts, a nice blazer and talk about how much the ball pops and you’ll be mistaken for Adam Mares and immediately whisked away to Altitude Studio (congrats, Adam!).

Rivals Blog: Bright side of the sun

The matchup

Injury report*: Dario Saric – questionable (ankle), Vlatko Cancar – out (knee), DaRon Holmes II – out (Achilles tendon); Grayson Allen – out (concussion), Bol Bol – out (knee), Devin Booker – out (groin), Collin Gillespie – out (G-League), TyTy Washington Jr. – out (G-League). *The Nuggets injury report had not been released at the time of writing

The three things

What you should pay attention to: Aaron Gordon vs. Kevin Durant

Devin Booker is out and, frankly, Bradley Beal hasn’t contributed to Phoenix’s victory lately. Durant remains Phoenix’s biggest threat by far. While he was in Brooklyn when Denver got Aaron Gordon, KD is exactly the type of player the Nuggets got Gordon for: an elite perimeter scorer with the skill and size to overwhelm (or simply shoot over) your typical wings. The recipe for beating the Suns isn’t necessarily stopping Durant (the Pistons beat Phoenix the other night when KD scored 43 points), but it’s certainly enough if you also play good basketball. The Nuggets need AG to hang on to Durant tonight and force him to give up the ball. If they succeed, their chances of winning are very high.

Here’s what you should remember: Why is James Jones so obsessed with us?

Jusuf Nurkic, Mason Plumlee, Monte Morris, Colin Gillespie, Bol Bol… does anyone see a theme here? Suns GM James Jones seems to be all in on the former Nuggets, and honestly, James, we’re just not that into you. Of course I’m being ironic here, but I think it’s funny how many reunions there will be tonight. Will Nikola Jokic try to destroy his former training mates Nurkic and Plumlee? Will there be some tension between Jamal Murray and Morris? Unfortunately, there’s no Bol Bol tonight as he’s dealing with an injury and Gillespie is playing in the G-League, but there are still plenty of connections between the two rosters.

What to bet on: Jamal Murray over 20.5 points (-110)

Jamal is playing better and looking more like himself, but the betting public hasn’t quite caught up yet. Last week I took Murray threes as our TTB and that made money relatively easily, now I’m staring at -110 for Jamal who only scored 21 points and it feels like Christmas came early. Murray has scored 20 or more points in four straight games, and I know what you’re thinking: There’s no way Jamal is going to have another big night after a traveling OT B2B. Well, the last time this situation happened was in October when the Nuggets beat the Toronto Raptors in OT, only to have to play the Brooklyn Nets the next night in Brooklyn…Jamal scored 24 points against the Nets.