The Brooklyn Nets travel to Colorado to face the Denver Nuggets at Pepsi Center on Thursday.

The Nets (4-6) had another close loss in their most recent outing and that's become a disturbing trend for this team all season long. That narrow defeat at the hands of the Utah Jazz on Tuesday marked their fifth narrow loss of the season and this club could easily be 9-1 if the ball fell their way a few more times. What's really hurting this club is their subpar defense, with the Nets allowing the second-most points in the NBA. The good news is that they're third in scoring but that simply won't win games if you can't get stops on the other end of the floor. It's certainly no fault of Kyrie Irving either, with the All-Star leading Brooklyn with 30 points and 7.2 assists per game. If he can do that when Kevin Durant returns from injury next season, this will surely be a team to fear in the Eastern Conference.

The Nuggets (7-3) are actually pretty fortunate to have seven wins over their first 10 games. Two game-winners by Nikola Jokic got them to this point and a home loss against the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday shows the true form of this team. Wins are wins though and this definitely looks like one of the most dangerous teams in the NBA behind their Top-3 defense. What they need to improve on is their offense though, with Denver ranked 27th in scoring. That's a shocking statistic from such a talented team, particularly an organization that usually plays up-tempo basketball with the altitude in their favor. Playing at such a slow pace will do that but one has to believe that they'll pick it up if the struggles continue.

Brooklyn swept the two-game season series over Denver last season, despite both games being decided by five points or fewer. In total, the Nets have won eight of their last 11 games over the Nuggets.