The Nuggets went 2-1 last week, pulling out a couple of close wins against teams vying for play-in spots, the Kings and Suns, then losing by 24 on Sunday to the Thunder. They were surging leading up to the All-Star break, rapidly ascending up the Western Conference standings.
But much of that success came against lesser competition and things have stagnated a bit now that the schedule has picked up. They’ve been able to hold their place as the number two seed in the West as other teams in the West like the Lakers, Grizzlies, and Rockets have been hampered by injuries and players missing time.
In John Schuhmann’s weekly NBA.com power rankings, the Nuggets were stuck around the middle of the pack for the first couple of months while the team was figuring things out, but as they climbed the standings, they made their way up the power rankings as well.
At one point, in the midst of a nine-game winning streak, they had risen as high as number four overall, but as they leveled off and came back down to earth a bit, the team fell a couple of weeks in a row, to number five two weeks ago and number six last week.
Nuggets hold steady at #6 in NBA power rankings
In the latest edition of the rankings for week 21 of the NBA season that came out on Monday, Schuhmann had the Nuggets staying exactly where we left them, at number six. The only loss last week was on the road against the best team in the West, so it was hard to ding them much.
The power rankings were published before Monday night’s game, so Schuhmann wasn’t factoring in their big road win over Oklahoma City.
The top four teams in the power rankings stayed exactly the same with the Cavaliers at number one, the Thunder at two, the Celtics at three, and the Lakers at four. The Warriors made a giant leap up to fifth after being 11th last week, while the Knicks dropped from fifth to seventh.
Nuggets have great chance to move up next week
Denver is well-positioned to make a leap in this coming Monday’s week 22 edition of the power rankings. They already have an impressive road win over the Thunder and have a chance to beat the fourth-ranked Lakers on Friday night. They should have a relatively easy game with the Wizards on Saturday for a potential 3-1 week with two wins over top four teams.
We can’t forget the troubling blowout home loss to the Timberwolves on Wednesday, but the Wolves are one of the hottest teams in the league right now and appear to simply have the Nuggets’ number.