How would the Denver Nuggets stack up against the Celtics?

As the NBA Finals creep toward a close, the Boston Celtics are closing in on their first championship in 16 years. They’re up 3-0 on the Mavericks in the Finals and on the verge of their 18th title in franchise history and doing so in some pretty dominant fashion.

Hypotheticals can be a pointless measure, but it’s hard as a Nuggets fan not to watch these finals play out and wonder how the defending champs would face the likely near-future champs. The teams played twice this regular season with the Nuggets taking both games in dramatic fashion.

The regular season meetings felt like playoff-caliber basketball and it did feel like we were witnessing a preview of the Finals. Many had those matchups circled when the schedule came out and they lived up to the hype. You can’t take anything away from the Mavericks or especially the Celtics but let’s play a little game of ‘what if’?

What would a Celtics-Nuggets series look like?

The one element of the series that could swing things in favor of Denver is that the Nuggets play through Nikola Jokic, a big man. The Celtics defense has been incredible in giving trouble to Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving. It feels like they have endless defenders to throw at those guys and they’re willing to live with just about any switch.

But those are guards (even if Luka is a bigger guard) and Jokic is a center. The Celtics wouldn’t be able to defend the Nuggets like this. The injury to Krispaps Porzingis and his limited availability so far in these Finals would have been an even bigger story against the Nuggets. Al Horford would do his best but he’s not somebody who would shut down the Joker.

The Celtics would possibly even have to try their big wings, likely Jayson Tatum, to try and slow down Jokic, but ultimately that’s a problem the Celtics may not be able to solve. Now, on the other hand, the Nuggets would have their handful with the Boston offense, especially the wings.

They don’t really have two guys you’d trust to stop Tatum and Brown and that could become an issue. They’d also have a hard time hiding lesser defenders. Plus the Celtics have two of the best guard defenders in the league and a hobbled Jamal Murray likely would have been hounded relentlessly by Jrue Holiday and Derrick White.

It would be a great series and likely one that would look more competitive than the one currently playing out. But alas, it’s not a question we’ll ever get an answer to. Hopefully, this serves as extra motivation for the Nuggets and maybe we’ll finally get this dream Finals matchup in 2025.