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The Los Angeles Clippers are the hottest team in the NBA, and get to show it to a national audience on Christmas Day, as they host the Denver Nuggets in the last of five games Tuesday.
The Clippers have won as many games in a row as the Lakers, who play at noon, have won all season. There haven't been a whole lot of good teams on their schedule - at 15-13, the Nuggets will be only the fourth above-.500 team they've played in the stretch - but they've made up for it by running teams out of the gym: 10 of the 13 wins have been by double-digits, including all of their last five, and eight are by 15 points or more. Entering Tuesday's game, the Clippers are in the top five on both offense and defense. A starting unit featuring Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan is just as dangerous as ever, but there's little lag when a bench unit featuring Jamal Crawford comes into the game.
As for the Nuggets, they've won four of five with Danilo Gallinari the leader amongst seven players who average double-figures in scoring. Kenneth Faried is showing his talent in his second year in the league, just a tenth of a point away from averaging a double-double.
Here's the info on the Christmas day game:
Tuesday, Dec. 25
Denver Nuggets vs. Los Angeles Clippers, 7:30 p.m., ESPN