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Dikembe Mutombo’s three best Denver Nuggets seasons ranked for NBA Block Week

By Michael Walton

DENVER, CO - OCTOBER 21: Former Denver Nuggets star Dikembe Mutombo gives his famous finger wag after ceremonies at halftime of the game with the Denver Nuggets and the Sacramento Kings game on October 21, 2017 at Pepsi Center. This marks the 50th anniversary of the franchise. (Photo by John Leyba/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
DENVER, CO - OCTOBER 21: Former Denver Nuggets star Dikembe Mutombo gives his famous finger wag after ceremonies at halftime of the game with the Denver Nuggets and the Sacramento Kings game on October 21, 2017 at Pepsi Center. This marks the 50th anniversary of the franchise. (Photo by John Leyba/The Denver Post via Getty Images) /
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DENVER, CO – OCTOBER 29: The Denver Nuggets raise a banner to honor former NBA player Dikembe Mutombo (Photo by Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images) /

The Denver Nuggets finished the 1994-95 season in the top 10 in opponents’ field goal percentage (45.6 percent) and offensive rebounds (12.5), guarding their way to the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference.

Mutombo had two triple-doubles in the 1994-95 season and like all 10 of his career triple-doubles, they were with blocks. He had one triple-double with 12 points, 14 rebounds and 11 blocks and another that season with 18 points, 18 rebounds and 10 blocks.

This was the year the Nuggets returned to the postseason for the first time since the 1989-90 season.

Via Basketball-Reference Mutombo had a 4.4 defensive box plus/minus in 1994-95, one of his top five seasons in that particular defensive metric.

Though the Nuggets were swept in three games in the ’95 Western Conference First Round, Mutombo did an admirable job defending ‘The Admiral’ David Robinson.

Robinson was the 1994-95 MVP, averaging 27.6 points and 10.8 rebounds on 53 percent shooting from the field. When he faced off head-to-head with Mutombo in the ’95 west first round, Mt. Mutombo held Robinson to 19.0 points and 6.7 rebounds per game on 42.9 percent shooting, well below his season averages.

Mutombo played 37.8 minutes per game in 1994-95, the second-highest average of his career. It was a grind-it-out year for Mutombo, who played all 82 games that year, the second of the four seasons in which he accomplished this feat. ’95 was Mutombo’s fourth-best season in terms of defensive rebound rate (26.7 percent) and third-best in terms of block rate (7.5 percent).

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