© Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

The Denver Nuggets are hosting the Brooklyn Nets on Thursday night, and they will have superstar center Nikola Jokic available. Jokic has been incredibly durable for Denver over the years, and has once again been steady for them to start this season.

Jokic was ejected from Denver's most recent game, which came against the Chicago Bulls, but the NBA did not hand out a suspension or any additional punishment beyond the ejection. It was a controversial ejection that came after just one technical foul, but it's something the Nuggets are putting behind them now.

The Nets are an interesting team, because while they have pivoted from their super-team era, which included Kevin Durant, James Harden, and Kyrie Irving, they are also not in a full rebuild. In more of a retooling era right now, the Nets still have some very good players on their roster than have kept them competitive in the Eastern Conference.

While the Nets are not contenders, they do sit three games above .500 right now at 13-10. This has Brooklyn just a half game back of the 5th seed, which is solid for a team that is still figuring things out. The Nuggets will have their hands full with this group on Thursday night, but the defending champions are tough to deal with themselves, especially with Jokic leading the way.

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