What's at stake on the final day of the NBA regular season: every Nuggets scenario
By Ben Handler
In a wild twist, three teams enter the final day of the NBA regular season tied atop the Western Conference standings. The Nuggets, Thunder, and Timberwolves all have identical 56-25 records on the season. They’ll each play one final game on Sunday and each team could still finish anywhere from first to third in the West depending on the outcomes.
The Nuggets will go on the road to take on the Grizzlies, the Thunder will host the Mavericks, and the Timberwolves will host the Suns. All three games will tip off at 1:30 PM Mountain Time. Here are the different possible scenarios that could unfold, and what that would mean for the top three seeds.
Wolves win, Thunder win, Nuggets win
1. Thunder
2. Timberwolves
3. Nuggets
Wolves win, Thunder win, Nuggets lose
1. Timberwolves
2. Thunder
3. Nuggets
Wolves win, Thunder lose, Nuggets win
1. Timberwolves
2. Nuggets
3. Thunder
Wolves win, Thunder lose, Nuggets lose
1. Timberwolves
2. Thunder
3. Nuggets
Wolves lose, Thunder win, Nuggets win
1. Thunder
2. Nuggets
3. Timberwolves
Wolves lose, Thunder win, Nuggets lose
1. Thunder
2. Timberwolves
3. Nuggets
Wolves lose, Thunder lose, Nuggets win
1. Nuggets
2. Timberwolves
3. Thunder
Wolves lose, Thunder lose, Nuggets lose
1. Thunder
2. Timberwolves
3. Nuggets
What it all means for the Nuggets
As you can see, the Nuggets cost themselves dearly by losing to the Spurs on Friday night. They can now only get the one seed with a win and losses by both the Thunder and Timberwolves. If those teams both win, or the Nuggets lose, then Denver is locked into the three seed no matter what.
Of the eight possible scenarios that could still play out on Sunday, there is only one outcome where the Nuggets would get the one seed, only two where they would get the two seed, and five outcomes where they would be the three seed in the Western Conference playoffs.
This isn’t the end of the world for the Nuggets, but it means they likely will not have homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs. Who knows? We’ve seen some crazy results in the NBA recently, and until these games are over, I’m not ruling anything out. Sunday should be an incredible day of basketball.