It will be all about the Nuggets and the level of focus/intensity they bring. Their real worries can’t be centered around any particular first round matchup though. Jokić wasn’t an MVP caliber player yet, Porter was a rookie, and the Nuggets roster wasn’t as strong as it is today.ĭenver should of course be favored in any series against the Lakers or Pelicans. Yes, the Lakers defeated the Nuggets in the 2020 bubble playoffs, but that was a long time ago. Neither team is a great matchup for Denver with big forwards (LeBron James, Brandon Ingram) and dynamic athletes (Anthony Davis/Jarred Vanderbilt, Trey Murphy/Herb Jones) that could pose some matchup problems. The Nuggets went 2-2 against each team in the regular season, and both the Lakers (16-7 record post All-Star break) and Pelicans (12-11 record with a win against the Nuggets) have been solid. Tied among teams Nuggets fans least want to see are the Lakers and Pelicans. They have little size to match up with two-time MVP Nikola Jokić and would be operating at a disadvantage for much of the series, though their future is incredibly bright. The Thunder are immediately after the Timberwolves and are seen as one of the weaker matchups. Of course, when one of your star players (Gobert) punches a teammate and another starter (Jaden McDaniels) breaks a hand punching a literal wall, all bets are off. With Anthony Edwards, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Rudy Gobert, they certainly have the talent to make things difficult for Denver in a series. Leading the poll by a significant margin were the Timberwolves, a team that has defeated the Nuggets twice this season. I ran a poll for Nuggets fans on Monday night to see who they want the Nuggets to face in the first round among the aforementioned teams, and the results were very interesting: So, the Nuggets could still face any of the Lakers, Timberwolves, Pelicans, and Thunder in the first round. The loser will face the winner of Pelicans-Thunder on Friday night, and the winner of that game will become the new eighth seed and face your Denver Nuggets. The winner of Lakers-Timberwolves will become the new seventh seed and face the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round. On Wednesday night, the ninth seed New Orleans Pelicans will play the tenth seed Oklahoma City Thunder. The Los Angeles Lakers ended the year as the seventh seed and will play the eighth seeded Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday night. This season, the Western Conference plays host to four exceptionally different teams. Becoming a top six seed in either conference is now exceptionally valuable, but there’s jockeying for position up and down the standings based on where certain teams hope to finish each and every season. Adding intrigue and stress to the end of the regular season has turned the end-of-year standings shuffle into a must-see event. In its fourth year of existence dating back to the 2020 NBA playoffs delayed by Covid-19, the Play-In has become a mostly popular addition to the schedule. That’s because of a relatively new inclusion to the postseason festivities: a Play-In tournament. They could sit back comfortably and watch the majority of the conference struggle and stress over playoff seeding, knowing that their own fate would not be decided until this coming Friday night. With the 2023 NBA playoffs just around the corner, the Denver Nuggets almost know who they will face in the first round.Īfter clinching the top seed in the Western Conference last week, the Nuggets had nothing left to play for in the regular season.
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