NBA Power rankings check-in, how do the Nuggets stack up?
By Ben Handler
The latest NBA power rankings were released on NBA.com on Monday and your very own Denver Nuggets have climbed up to number one on the list. The Celtics were atop the rankings last week while the Nuggets were second.
But after defeating the Celtics to sweep the season series, the Nuggets have surpassed them and reclaimed their spot on the throne. The defending champs are now also first in the power rankings.
NBA reporter, John Schuhmann crafts the rankings each week, and he deemed the Nuggets have done enough to earn the top spot. Denver is 9-1 since the All-Star break, with their only loss coming in overtime to the Phoenix Suns.
On the season, Denver is now 45-20 and just a half-game behind the Oklahoma City Thunder for the number one seed in the Western Conference. The Thunder held their spot at third in the power rankings.
The Nuggets have the easiest remaining schedule of the top four teams in the West, giving them the inside track for the one seed. Denver, of course, earned the top seed in the Western Conference last season and rode that home-court advantage all the way to an NBA championship, their first in franchise history.
Repeating as champions certainly won’t be easy, but the team is doing everything they can to put themselves in a position to make another run at it. Playing their best basketball with just one month left in the regular season is a great start, and being ranked number one in the power rankings is a pretty good place to be.
The Celtics fell to second place in the power rankings, with the Thunder, Bucks, and Clippers rounding out the top five. The Timberwolves, who have led the Western Conference for most of the season fell to sixth, while the surging New Orleans Pelicans jumped all the way from 12th to seventh.
After defeating the Raptors on Monday night, the Nuggets will head on the road and finish this week with road games against the Heat, Spurs, and Mavericks. Wednesday night’s game in Miami will be the teams’ second meeting since the NBA Finals. The Nuggets held serve in Denver with a 103-97 win on February 29th.