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Denver Nuggets: Preview and rooting guide for the playoff push

By Max Carlin

DENVER, CO - APRIL 5: The Denver Nuggets huddles up before the game against the Minnesota Timberwolves on April 5, 2018 at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Bart Young/NBAE via Getty Images)
DENVER, CO - APRIL 5: The Denver Nuggets huddles up before the game against the Minnesota Timberwolves on April 5, 2018 at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Bart Young/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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With the Denver Nuggets’ playoff hopes revived, it’s time to look at what lies ahead and how to root during the stretch run.

It wasn’t more than two weeks ago that an intrepid young writer suggested that the 2017-18 Denver Nuggets were done for. Welp.

The Nuggets currently sit ninth in the Western Conference with a record of 44-35. While Denver is on the outside looking in, the road to the playoffs is unobstructed – the Nuggets control their own destiny.

As has become painfully obvious, though, life is rarely simple when it comes this year’s Nuggets.

Schedule

The jourey, of course, starts with the Nuggets’ remaining schedule:

  • Saturday, April 7 at the Los Angeles Clippers
  • Monday, April 9 vs. the Portland Trail Blazers
  • Wednesday, April 11 at the Minnesota Timberwolves

That is a gauntlet of playoff hopefuls. Today, the Clippers will be fighting for their lives, desperate to keep any hope of a postseason run possible. The likely 3-seeded Blazers are a formidable opponent, and the Timberwolves will be in the same position as the Nuggets come Wednesday: with no option but to win.

Competition

With the Utah Jazz and Blazers somewhat separating themselves from the pack, the San Antonio Spurs, Oklahoma City Thunder, New Orleans Pelicans, Timberwolves, Clippers and Nuggets are left fighting for the bottom-four seeds in the Western Conference.

The Spurs sit at 45-34 with games remaining against the Sacramento Kings, Trail Blazers and Pelicans. The Thunder are also 45-34, with contests to come against the Houston Rockets, Miami Heat and Memphis Grizzlies. The Pelicans join the cluster of 45-34 teams with the Golden State Warriors, Clippers and Spurs on the slate.

The Wolves also check in with 45 wins. However, Minnesota already has 35 losses, so the team’s only remaining games will be against the Grizzlies and Nuggets.

The Clippers, at 42-37, are the long shot. With games remaining against Denver, New Orleans and the Los Angeles Lakers, the Clippers will need to win out and have just about everything else break right.

External support

Unrelated to the Nuggets’ seeding, there is potential for help in the playoff race. The Blazers do not own the tiebreaker for seeding with the Jazz, but it is possible that Portland will have clinched the third seed by Monday’s matchup with the Nuggets.

If Portland takes care of business Saturday night against the Spurs and the Jazz lose on Sunday to the Lakers, the Blazers will clinch the 3-seed.

With seeding locked up, the Blazers would then be likely to rest players against the Nuggets, including superstar guard Damian Lillard, who’s recovering from an ankle sprain. Such a stroke of luck would transform a brutal game into an easy win.

Rooting Guide

It’s honestly hard to advise what specifically to root for beyond Portland winning and Utah losing. Because the standings are so convoluted, the tiebreakers so esoteric.

For tiebreakers, the individual ones are easy:

  • The Nuggets hold the tiebreaker over the Pelicans and Thunder
  • The Nuggets lose the tiebreaker to the Clippers and Timberwolves (Minnesota losing to Memphis, amusing as it would be, would secure nothing for the Nuggets)
  • The Nuggets’ tiebreaker against the Spurs is yet to be determined, because so many divisional games remain

When ties are between more than two teams, which is likely to occur in the hellish Western Conference, the tiebreakers get all wonky. Therefore, extrapolating defined rooting interests is beyond difficult. Overall, though, Nuggets fans should root for:

  • Nuggets wins (obviously)
  • Losses by all teams in the bottom-four playoff race against teams not in the race
  • Trail Blazers over Spurs and Lakers over Jazz
  • Pelicans over Spurs (to pass the Spurs, the Nuggets must have a better record, but to pass the Pelicans, they do not)

Conclusion

Miraculous comebacks and appalling collapses (looking at you, Milwaukee) have allowed Denver to thrust its hand through its coffin, claw its way through six feet of dirt and revive its playoff hopes.

The simple avenue to a playoff berth is winning, but there’s potential for that winning to be made magnitudes easier by some good fortune, so Nuggets fans should have some strong rooting interests outside of Denver down the stretch.

Next: 2017-18 Week 25 NBA Power Rankings

Ultimately, the chaos and competitiveness of the Western Conference should yield an all-time finish to an entertaining regular season.

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