Two of the hottest teams in the league will meet on Monday night in a Western Conference showdown in Houston. 

Riding a five-game winning streak, and boasting eight wins in their last 10 games, the Denver Nuggets have built themselves a one and a half game lead over the rest of the pack in the Western Conference. But with all of the talent out West, they're going to need to keep it up in order to fend off the many challengers. 

One of which is the surging Houston Rockets. Led by James Harden, who is on a historic hot streak, the Rockets have rattled off 11 wins in their last 13 games. Once struggling, they're now among the many teams battling for a top seed in the West. 

How to watch Nuggets at Rockets

  • Date: Monday, Jan. 7
  • Time: 8 p.m. ET
  • Location: Toyota Center -- Houston, Texas
  • Streaming: fuboTV (free trial - NBA League Pass add-on available)
  • Live stats: GameTracker
  • Odds: Rockets -1.5

Odds and analysis

Check Sportsline's NBA pick sheet for all your daily odds.

Storylines

Nuggets: Any doubts should have ceased a while ago, but there's certainly no question anymore: the Nuggets are legit. They've won five in a row, eight of their last 10 and have built a one and a half game lead in the West. That's not a huge cushion, but it's a far better position than anyone thought the Nuggets would be in at this point in the season. Their leading man, Nikola Jokic, is pushing his way into the fringes of the MVP conversation; during their winning streak, he's nearly averaging a triple-double, putting up 25.6 points, 11.2 rebounds and nine assists per game.

Rockets: James Harden has single-handedly saved the Rockets' season. Once just 11-14, everything looked to be falling apart for Houston after an interesting offseason. But then Harden took over, ripping off a historic hot streak to turn things around. He's put up at least 35 points and five assists in 10 straight games, had a four-game 40-point streak and led the Rockets to 11 wins in 13 games. They are coming off a loss to Portland though, and Harden had one of his worst shooting games of the season. It will be interesting to see if he's starting to feel some fatigue from his heavy workload. 

Game prediction, pick

This is a tough one to pick, as both teams are playing some fantastic basketball right now. But with the game essentially a toss-up, we'll ride with the home team and take the Rockets to win and cover the 1.5 points.