Denver Nuggets: 15 greatest playoff moments of all-time

14. Nuggets end nine-year playoff drought vs. Kings

• 2004 Western Conference Playoffs
• April 12, 2004 (Pepsi Center, Denver, CO)
• Denver Nuggets 97, Sacramento Kings 89

It had been a long and frustrating nine years for the Nuggets. While the team made the Western Conference Playoffs in back-to-back years with teams centered around Dikembe Mutombo, Denver fell on hard times once the Nuggets star big man left for the Atlanta Hawks in free agency.

The Nuggets finished below .500 each season from 1995-96 to 2002-03, not even remotely sniffing the postseason. Rough seasons were had in the late 1990s to early 2000s in the Rocky Mountains for the Colorado professional hoops team. But that would all change by picking the right superstar in the 2003 NBA Draft.

Small forward Carmelo Anthony went one-and-done at Syracuse, leading the Orangemen to their only national championship of the Joe Boeheim era. Anthony fell to the Nuggets at No. 3 in the NBA Draft. LeBron James was obviously going No. 1 to the Cleveland Cavaliers, but the Detroit Pistons passed on Anthony in favor of the Serbian 7-footer Darko Milicic.

While Milicic would bust most catastrophically in Motown, Anthony spent his first 7.5 Hall-of-Fame seasons in the Mile High City, leading the Nuggets to the playoffs seven times before forcing a trade to the New York Knicks. Denver would have its best postseason of the Anthony era in 2009, but just getting there when he was only a rookie is still very impressive.

Denver would clinch its first playoff berth in nine years at home on April 12, 2004 against the Sacramento Kings. Though not at its peak of the Chris Webber era, Sacramento was still a perennial playoff team in Northern California for head coach Rick Adelman.

With it being the second-to-last game of the regular season, Denver needed to win this one at home to put an end to its ongoing postseason drought. It was a total team effort for the Nuggets to slay the mighty Kings at the Pepsi Center, but Anthony and the guys got it done.

All five starters scored in double figures for the Nuggets with point guard Andre Miller leading the way with 21 points. Anthony had 17. Big men Marcus Camby and Nene had a dozen apiece. Wing Voshon Lenard had 10. The Nuggets played very hard in front of the home crowd, winning decidedly 97-89 over the Kings.

While Denver would fall to Kevin Garnett and the Minnesota Timberwolves 4-1 in the ensuing Western Conference Quarterfinals, Denver would become a fixture in the NBA playoffs for the next decade. Though they only won two playoff series during that 10-year span, NBA fans could always count on the Nuggets playing in late April from that point on.