NBA Playoffs must-follow storylines: Utah Jazz vs Denver Nuggets

Predictions

So much of the potential outcome of this series is predicated on that which we don’t have a clear sense of.

If MPJ maintains his current level of play. If Mike Conley does the same if and when he returns. If Jamal Murray rediscovers the play that had him average 21.3 points per game in getting Denver to within a game of the Western Conference Finals last year. What if Mitchell’s playoff struggles continue, even against a new foe?

With plenty of unanswerables, determining a winner likely comes down to the team with the fewest questions. That edge goes to Denver, a team familiar with its inner workings, allowing for the seamless integration of a player like Porter who’s excelled playing off his teammates.

Utah has struggled to that end all season, having been in constant pursuit of the precise tweaks necessary to extract the most of Conley amid his new surroundings. Bogdanovic’s surgery forced another set of adjustments and the absence of Conley and backup big Ed Davis is sure to breed even more. Who knows if the Jazz are adequately prepared to implement them in a playoff setting.

It doesn’t hurt that Denver has the best player in the series, always a factor that tips the scales in one team’s favor. We saw what a slowed, grinded style of playoff basketball brings out in Jokic last postseason, and it was of historic proportions. Gobert, however, will make sure he earns all of it this time around.

The Nuggets won’t breeze through the first round, not against a team that, for all its quirks still in need of ironing, is still incredibly talented at both ends. Not to mention the absence of both Harris and Barton to start the series.

Continuity is a powerful tool in the uncharted waters of postseason basketball, and Denver should be able to leverage theirs into a second-round appearance in the NBA playoffs.

Prediction: Nuggets in six