Nuggets locked into third seed after loss to Clippers

The Denver Nuggets lost their penultimate game of the regular season to the Los Angeles Clippers by a final score of 124-111.

The Denver Nuggets still had an opportunity to climb into the second seed in the Western Conference heading into Wednesday’s showdown with the Clippers. Going into the game, it was unclear just how much head coach Michael Malone and his staff was going to play the team’s full contingent of starters after barely playing them at all in the second half of the game against the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Nuggets hung tough throughout the game, but were eventually upstaged by the sheer brilliance of the Clippers’ defensive wings. Nikola Jokic had a rather pedestrian 17 points, and only took 11 shots. He did however dish out 13 assists. Jerami Grant stole the show for Denver, canning 9/14 shots for 25 points and gobbled up six rebounds en route to his best performance in the bubble.

The Nuggets are now entrenched as the third seed and will take on the Utah Jazz in the first round of the playoffs. Nikola Jokic and Rudy Gobert in the paint is going to be must-see television in the playoffs, and a now healthy Jamal Murray might give fits to the aging Mike Conley.

For the Nuggets, the team’s perimeter defense is going to have to be substantially better against a team that is tied for first in the league in three-point percentage in the Jazz. Bojan Bogdanovic, Joe Ingles, Donovan Mitchell, Jordan Clarkson, Conley, and Emmanuel Mudiay are going to present some steep challenges for a defense that hasn’t been too impressive so far.

The Nuggets also need to get Gary Harris and Will Barton ready to go before the playoffs commence. The team has one more seeding game remaining against the Toronto Raptors. That will be on Friday afternoon. The Nuggets may be disappointed that they weren’t able to get themselves ahead of the Clippers, but finishing as the third seed is hardly a failure in the Western Conference.