The Denver Nuggets have four games remaining and Friday’s stint with the Portland Trail Blazers will be the most important game of the season. A win over Portland would lock Denver into home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs and give the Nuggets the tiebreaker with the Blazers.
This game is huge, and the next three will be as well, and then come the playoffs where every game is pivotal. The Nuggets certainly aren’t peaking right at this moment as they’re only .500 in their last 8 games, but their is time to right the ship as the season comes to a close. In the first round of the playoffs where I project them to play either the San Antonio Spurs or the Los Angeles Clippers. (I’ll explain why in my next post).
This young team is facing a playoff type schedule in their first playoff push where seeding is at stake rather then grasping at that last spot to get in. Then, the Nuggets would face one of two teams that they have played well against in the regular season, having beaten the Clippers three out of four times while splitting the series with the Spurs, while winning both at the Pepsi Center and losing by a combined 9 points in the two matchups in San Antonio.
That leaves the door wide open for the Nuggets to mature on the fly over the next couple of weeks, and for any of the supporting cast to find their hot hand(s). The Nuggets have recently suffered through up and down shooting and long lapses where the offense looks anemic, and missed shots certainly don’t help the defense out.
The guys are trying hard and perhaps simply need to learn how to get through a shooting slump or stay calm and do other things well when jump shots aren’t falling. The best news is they’ll get their chance to learn how to do these things and win games starting right now.