The Denver Nuggets lost several close games last year. With goals of reaching the playoffs eluding the eager squad for a third consecutive season, each loss has left an extra bitter taste in the mouth of Denver fans and players alike.
But, while knowing that a playoff-clinching record was realistically within reach is a particularly painful notion for Nugget-folk, with twenty-seven losses coming at single-digit deficits, this feeling is shared with many other lower-ranking Western Conference teams.
The conference is as tough now as it has ever been, and just about every western team has a legitimate shot at making the playoffs. Nuggets fans can expect a season filled with extremely hard and passionately fought games, as the sting from many of last season’s match-ups will undoubtedly raise the on-court tension between the Nuggets and their current rival teams.
If there is any rivalry list in today’s NBA, you can bet on the Warriors making it. They made the Nuggets’ list, and while most their heated match-ups come from other Western Conference teams, which makes perfect sense, don’t count out the East; the Nuggets lost two one-point games to the Nets (one of which came in OT), and went 1-3 against the Grizzlies (with an average difference of less than five points per-game).
By looking back at heated match-ups and games from the 2015-16 season, it seems fit to expect at least ten potential series for the 2016-17 season that could deliver the passionate tension specific to great rivalries.
They rank as follows:
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