The Denver Nuggets and Houston Rockets meet in a high-stakes NBA Cup in-season tournament matchup Friday night, featuring two of the Western Conference’s hottest teams.

Denver enters at 11-3, sitting second in the West, while Houston is 10-3 and third after a surprising early-season surge behind elite defense and the rapid development of Alperen Sengun and Jabari Smith Jr.

The Rockets are one of the league’s most physical interior teams, ranking seventh in the NBA with 53.4 points in the paint per game, led by Sengun’s 12.0 points inside.

Denver counters with size and rebounding dominance, sitting second in the West at 47.3 rebounds per game, thanks largely to two-time MVP Nikola Jokic , who’s averaging 13.2 boards.

But both teams enter with significant injury questions that

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