The Denver Nuggets kept pace in the Western Conference with a blowout win over the Sacramento Kings.
Every game is must-win at this point. If the Denver Nuggets want more than a four-game dismantling by the Rockets in the first round, it’s going to take a heroic effort from the boys in blue-and-gold.
The good news? There are heroes on this team. Just when we start to question The Core, they rise up. When we wonder why the bench can’t scrape out minutes, there’s Juancho getting seven fairly effective minutes against the Lakers. They are capable of more than we expected from this season.
Looking back to the beginning of this campaign, the expectations were that this team make the playoffs. Full stop. As the season has progressed, the expectation has evolved. Make the playoffs, sure but make some noise in the playoffs as well. Is there a team, currently in the three-through-eight seed that the Nuggets could not beat in a series?
No, this still isn’t a championship year for the Nuggets. The Warriors are defending champs and even though the Rockets currently occupy the top seed, it took an absurd winning streak for them to be up half-a-game. The Western Conference champion and NBA Champion will most likely be one of those two teams.
Did last night’s game tell us anything about the Nuggets? Let’s look at a couple of takeaways: