Rockets' Kevin Durant Showers Nuggets' Nikola Jokic with Praise

Much has been said about the Houston Rockets' wonky schedule.

Wonky may not even be the best word, as it doesn't do the situation the best justice. Houston has played just 25 games, as of this writing, which is still the league's fewest.

The Rockets were expected to have the easiest schedule in the month of December, however they've gone 4-4 thus far. One of those losses came in spite of a 25-point lead against the lowly Pelicans, which Houston should have been able to hang onto.

Another one of those losses came against the Denver Nuggets, in which the Rockets were on the receiving end of poor officiating. So bad, that Rockets coach Ime Udoka was slapped with a $25,000 fine for blasting each referee on the crew that night.

In that game, Nikola Jokic had a game-high 39 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists, despite fouling out in the contest.

On Saturday, Houston faced the Nuggets once more, seizing victory this time. Jokic didn't play quite as great as he did in the last matchup, but he still had 25 points (albeit on 9-of-20), seven rebounds and five assists (in addition to five turnovers and five fouls).

Jokic played well enough to garner praise from Kevin Durant, who went so far as to call him a top-five player after the game.

"One of the top ten players, top five players that I've ever seen play basketball. That's how much respect I got for these dudes. I just love his game. I love how he approaches the game. I feel like....a lot of people might disagree with me right now. But I feel like we have a similar mentality with how we approach work, just the game itself. I can sense that from far. So I've always had respect for him.

"And then you accomplish what you've accomplished in this league, gotta respect that."

This season, Jokic is averaging 32.7 points, 10.7 rebounds, 8 assists, 49.3% from the field, 47.6% from three, 78.6% from the foul line, in addition to 4.3 turnovers and 5.3 fouls.

The Rockets and Nuggets don't play each other again until March 11th, which will be the final regular season matchup between the two teams.

Houston will take on the Kings tonight at 9 p.m. CT, hoping for a second-consecutive win. The Rockets currently stand at 17-8 on the season, good for fifth in the Western Conference.