The Oklahoma City Thunder play host to the Denver Nuggets at Chesapeake Energy Arena on Friday.

The Nuggets (50-24) captured the top-seed in the Western Conference earlier in the week but completely fell on their face right after. In fact, they took a 36-point beatdown at the hands of the Indiana Pacers in their one game as the top-seed, which ultimately landed them right back into second. While they did follow that up with a narrow win over the Detroit Pistons, they took another blowout loss at the hands of the Houston Rockets on Thursday. This poor stretch has to have Nuggets fans somewhat discouraged and it seems more and more unlikely that they'll finish first in the west. Gaining a top-two seed is a heck of an accomplishment in its own right though, as that's pretty much a guarantee at this point. That means the Nuggets will have homecourt for the first two rounds of the postseason, which is huge for a club who owns a 19-18 road record and a 31-6 home record.

The Thunder (44-31) have been playing poorly since the all-star break, as they come into this matchup losing 12 of their last 19 games. That stretch has dropped Oklahoma City to seventh in the west, which is quite the downfall after sitting third not long ago. The good news is that the Thunder are just one game back of the Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Clippers in fifth and sixth. That means there's a lot that needs to be decided over the final few weeks and this club desperately needs to find some form heading into the postseason. The fact that Paul George (shoulder) comes into this matchup questionable doesn't quiet the doubters, as his absence will hurt this team even more if he does sit out.

This is the fourth and final meeting between these teams, with Denver looking for the season sweep.