HOUSTON — No Nuggets are on the injury report for tonight’s game against the Rockets, meaning interim coach Melvin Hunt has a full roster to battle one of the NBA’s best teams.
It stops a streak of two straight games in which three players were held out to rest.
This is the second time Hunt will coach against the Rockets in his first 10 games. The Nuggets lost to the Rockets back on Mar. 7, the fourth game of Hunt’s tenure.
“I don’t think we were as much of who we wanted to be in that game,” Hunt said. “We have to have the right kind of pace, and it’s got to start defensively. The game kind of got away from us because our defense slid a little bit. And James Harden is pretty good.”
Harden, the Rockets’ MVP candidate, had 28 points and seven assists in that game.
“He needs to see at least three sets of eyes when he has the basketball,” said Hunt of how the Nuggets want to defend Harden. “With that being said, we also can’t overreact to him because Donatas Motiejunas, Corey Brewer, Trevor Ariza, Patrick Beverley, all of those guys, they make plays. So we have to be true to our rules, true to who we are. And if we’re focused on doing what we do, we should be able to contain the Houston Rockets, not just James Harden.”
Christopher Dempsey: cdempsey@denverpost.com or
