(Photo credit: Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images)

The Denver Nuggets struggled to win at Ball Arena for most of the 2025-26 season, but they are now taking advantage of playing at home during the stretch run.

Denver (46-28) has won five in a row on its court after a 17-13 home start and can make it six in a row when the struggling Utah Jazz visit Friday night.

The Nuggets have the luxury of playing 10 of their last 14 regular-season games at home, and importantly, they won't have another back-to-back for the rest of the season. They had 17 this season and spent a lot of time traveling, but they only have two road games remaining.

'The nice thing about being home is you can get yourself in a routine,' head coach David Adelman said after Wednesday night's 142-135 win over Dallas. 'It's a big advantage to have a routine in anything in life but to win basketball games and get back in that rhythm is so important.'

Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray appeared to have a rhythm against the Mavericks when they put up historic numbers. Murray scored a season-high 53 points, two shy of his career-high, and Jokic finished with 23 points, 21 rebounds and 19 assists.

It marked the first time in NBA history that a player scored 50 or more while a teammate had at least 15 points, 15 rebounds and 15 assists in the same game.

Jokic is averaging 27.8 points, 12.8 rebounds and 10.8 assists, while Murray is putting up 25.4 points a game, the most in his career.

Utah (21-52) has lost three in a row and eight of its last 10 to secure its position in the lottery. The Jazz are without many of their top players -- Isaiah Collier (hamstring), Lauri Markkanen (hip) and Keyonte George (hamstring) are on the injured list and Jaren Jackson Jr. and Jusuf Nurkic are out for the season.

While the absences have decimated the Jazz, they have given rookie Ace Bailey a chance to shine -- and he is taking full advantage of it. Bailey is averaging 13.4 points this season but 20.6 in March. Bailey has put up 32 or more points three times this month after reaching 25 points just once through February.

He has also impressed head coach Will Hardy with his defensive play.

'It's harder to discuss an individual's defense in these settings because there are fewer things you can really measure,' Hardy said recently. 'I truly believe that he's grown more on the defensive side of the ball than he has offensively, but offense is so much easier to talk about.

'He's moving towards a two-way player. He's not there yet, but that's the goal.'

Defense will be needed if the Jazz want to upend Denver. The Nuggets lead the NBA in scoring at 121.1 points a game, while Utah is last in points allowed at 125.2. The Jazz have given up an average of 134 points over their last three games.

--Field Level Media