OKLAHOMA CITY — Wilson Chandler returns to the Nuggets starting lineup Monday night at small forward to help the team have its best chance at getting off to a good start against Oklahoma City, the last of a quick two-game road trip.

“Hopefully that will give us a shot in the arm,” Nuggets coach Brian Shaw said. “I know it will definitely give us a better opportunity at competing against (Kevin Durant) right at the start. It’s a guy he’s going to have to honor and guard and use some energy on the defensive end, and somebody with more size and strength and experience to guard him on the other end.”

Chandler has played in three games since returning from a hamstring injury, and has come off the bench in all three. He’s averaged 15 points on 50 percent shooting from the field and 52.9 percent from 3-point range to go along with four rebounds and 1.3 steals per game. Chandler has averaged 23.7 minutes in the three games.

Chandler and the rest of his Nuggets teammates were put through a defensive-oriented shootaround this morning at Chesapeake Energy Arena.

“We went over some offensive review, but the majority of it was defensive in nature,” Shaw said.

And with good reason. The Nuggets’ points-allowed have crept up each game from allowing just 81 at Utah to 99 against the Los Angeles Lakers, 113 to Minnesota and 122 in a loss at Houston on Saturday night.

“The beginning of the season we were struggling, we couldn’t get to 100 points offensively,” Shaw said. “Now we’ve been doing that on a fairly consistent basis. Our scoring has been up. But now the concern is the opposition’s points. Defensively, we’ve got to get back to keeping teams down. Giving up 122 points a game is going to end up resulting in losses. We definitely have to make more of an emphasis on locking down and stopping on the defensive end.”

Christopher Dempsey: cdempsey@denverpost.com or twitter.com/dempseypost