The Los Angeles Clippers will host the Denver Nuggets at Staples Center on Wednesday.

Both the Nuggets and Clippers missed out on the playoffs last season, as each team finished ninth and tenth in the Western Conference. While the missed cut of the playoffs stung after hard fought campaigns to break into the top half of the conference, both teams did finish above .500 on the season. The Nuggets return with a starting lineup almost identical to last year, while the Clippers retooled after the ground breaking Blake Griffin trade to the Detroit Pistons midway through the 2017-2018 season.

Two major offseason moves highlighted the summer for Denver. The first was a high risk, high reward draft pick in Michael Porter Jr, who was pegged as a potential top overall pick before his back injury kept him off the court at Missouri. Additionally, Isaiah Thomas landed at Denver with a bench role and chance to return to his form after a turbulent year with the Cavaliers and the Lakers. Jamal Murray and Gary Harris will lead the back court, while the exceptional passing Center Nikola Jokic will start at Center.

The Clippers lost DeAndre Jordan to the Mavericks in the offseason, but picked up former Wizards Center Marcin Gortat to protect the rim. Tobias Harris will return for his first full season with Los Angeles after playing in 32 games last year following the aforementioned Blake Griffin trade. Harris averaged 19.3 points on 47 percent shooting across his half season. Danilo Gallinari will look to put together a healthy season, however luck has not been on his side given the four consecutive seasons playing less than 65 games.

The Clippers took two out of three games in last year's season series with the Nuggets, with all three contests seeing each team score 100-plus points.