Denver @ Washington preview

Last Meeting ( Oct 23, 2017 ) Washington 109, Denver 104

If the Denver Nuggets are going to make the Western Conference playoffs this spring, they are going to have to figure out a way to beat a good team on the road. The Nuggets will try to improve to 2-2 on the current seven-game trip when they visit the Washington Wizards on Friday.

Denver sits 1 1/2 games behind the eighth-place Utah Jazz in the West entering play on Thursday and is 12-23 on the road after thumping the lowly Chicago Bulls 135-102 on Wednesday. "On the road, just to play good, to be aggressive, to kind of have an easy win, I think that's important for us," Nuggets center Nikola Jokic told reporters. "Just to have a win." The road gets considerably tougher from here, with each of the next four games and six of the final 10 on the road against teams with winning records, starting with the Wizards. Washington fell into sixth place in the East with a loss at San Antonio on Wednesday but is just a half-game behind the fourth-place Philadelphia 76ers and two back of the third-place Cleveland Cavaliers in the battle for homecourt advantage in the first round.

TV: 7 p.m. ET, NBATV, Altitude (Denver), NBCS Washington

ABOUT THE NUGGETS (39-33): It felt like a home game in Chicago on Wednesday as the Bulls celebrated Serbian Heritage Night, and hundreds of fans came out in support of the Serbian-born Jokic. The 23-year-old treated the fans to 21 points on 9-of-11 shooting in 24 minutes as the rout afforded him a bit of a break after logging 47 minutes in Monday's 149-141 double-overtime loss at Miami. "It was a home game for him," Denver forward Paul Millsap told reporters of Jokic. "I can see why he was feeling it out there. His fans are our fans. The more the better. We gotta pack them up and bring them on our next trip."

ABOUT THE WIZARDS (40-31): Washington dropped three of its last five games and six of 10 after falling in San Antonio 98-90, and all six of those recent setbacks came against playoff-bound opponents. "It's frustrating because we were right there," All-Star guard Bradley Beal told reporters. "Every time we have a chance to move up (in the standings), we kind of take two steps back. All we can do is put it behind us and move on." Beal is doing his part to move the Wizards up in the standings and is averaging 24.7 points on 55.8 percent shooting over the last three games.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Wizards SG Jodie Meeks and PF Mike Scott both missed Wednesday's game due to illness and are day-to-day.

2. Nuggets leading scorer Gary Harris (17.7 points) sat out the last three games with a knee injury and is not expected to play on Friday.

3. Washington took the last three in the series, including a 109-104 win at Denver on Oct. 23.

PREDICTION: Wizards 113, Nuggets 109