The Denver Nuggets’ schedule for the 2017-18 NBA regular season is here, so we’ve made some quick first reactions to early games to look out for and particularly important months.
We now know the Denver Nuggets’ schedule for the 2017-18 NBA season. It was big news for a dull Monday during the offseason, and gives us the chance to really start looking ahead to where the Nuggets may thrive and struggle throughout the season.
The #Nuggets 2017-18 schedule: pic.twitter.com/Nh6YjNKJOh
— NuggetsPR (@NuggetsPR) August 15, 2017
Their season opener comes against the Utah Jazz on October 18, offering a good contest right off the bat as things begin a little earlier in October this year to help space out the 82 games somewhat. It’s an elite offense-meets-defense affair after the Nuggets led the league in offensive rating from December 15 onwards and will only improve as their young players develop, while the Jazz have gone all-in on defense after losing Gordon Hayward in free agency. With additions like Thabo Sefolosha and Ricky Rubio, defense and slowing the pace is their calling card even more than it was before.
From there, October is a great month for the Nuggets. The only real challenge is the Washington Wizards on October 23, but Denver has a chance to win their other five contests against Sacramento, Charlotte, Atlanta (Paul Millsap revenge game anyone?!), Brooklyn and New York, even with the final four of those coming on the road. The Nuggets have some adjusting to do after adding Millsap as an integral part of the team and they won’t hit their ceiling right away, but a weak schedule early on could help them start fairly strong out the gate.
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November brings about a few challenging matchups, specifically their first game against the reigning champion Golden State Warriors on November 4 before games against the Oklahoma City Thunder (Russell Westbrook and his new sidekick Paul George will be a major handful, but entertaining) and the James Harden–Chris Paul Houston Rockets stand out as early tests against some of the Western Conference elite.
December prompts more challenges with two games against the newly loaded Minnesota Timberwolves, another Warriors matchup, a visit to OKC, the first game against the Boston Celtics, and an entertaining night you can’t miss to end the month on December 30 against the budding Philadelphia 76ers.
As for the start of 2018, you don’t want to miss Jusuf Nurkic’s return to Denver on January 22.
In terms of the Nuggets’ late season push, March won’t be easy at all. They play the Cleveland Cavaliers twice in the first week of the month before they take on Washington, Philly (less noteworthy but they’re still an-up-and coming challenge as contenders for the playoffs, also offering a thrilling Joel Embiid–Nikola Jokic showdown), Toronto and Oklahoma City as their final four games to close the month.
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We’ll be looking at the schedule in far more detail over the coming days here at Nugg Love, breaking down the toughest spells and the easy runs. For now, though, you can feel positive about the possibility for a strong start, before the Nuggets dive into what Jared Dubin has projected as the sixth toughest strength of schedule based on the 2016-17 record of each team and their estimates for next season’s performance.