Live Game Thread: Brooklyn Nets at Denver Nuggets, 10:00 PM EST

Losing stinks. Losing four straight games really stinks.

Brooklyn heads into Denver on Saturday night on a 4-game losing streak to take on the Nuggets; the team with front runner for the league’s MVP.

Nikola Jokic is leading a Denver team that’s gone through it’s fair share of injuries this season. Sounds...like...someone...else...Oh, right! The Brooklyn Nets, too, have had a rough go at staying healthy.

James Harden is still out. Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, however, are healthy - they just can’t seem to get into the kind of rhythm that results in wins.

Alas, there’s always tonight!

WHO: Brooklyn Nets (43-24) at Denver Nuggets (44-23)

WHEN: 10:00 PM EST

WHERE: NBA TV (national), YES (local), WFAN (radio)

Game Preview.

Is this a must-win? The fans think so, of course, following four losses ... and the realization that the team is increasingly likely to fall into the third seed for the playoffs. With only five games to go, the Nets are three games behind the streaking 76ers (seven straight wins) and tied with the streaking Bucks (five straight), but Milwaukee holds the tie-breaker if the two teams finish with the same record. For the record, the Sixers play the lowly Pistons Saturday night in Philly. The Bucks are off till Monday night when they face the Spurs on the road.

But what about the players? How do they feel? They’re obviously not pleased with their performance, but to a man, they appear to take the long view. Get James Harden healthy, keep everyone else ready to go ... and learn from the pain. Better to deal with adversity now than in the playoffs.

“It’s all a learning experience. I’m glad it’s happening to us now instead of in a couple of weeks. Hopefully, we build off this and keep growing. I hope we feel this pain from losing and feeling like we are where we don’t want to be,” said Durant after Thursday’s defeat. “ I like this position for us and I think it’s going to make us better as we continue to keep watch film, going through practice, going through shootaround and playing the game.”

That said, they’ll to be improve in a lot of areas if they expect to beat the Nuggets, starting with getting KD back on track. He was 1-of-10 in the second half of Brooklyn’s loss to Dallas ... following two lackluster late games against Milwaukee.

For more on the Nuggets, check out Denver Stiffs.