A lot has been made of the Nuggets’ struggles against top teams this season, as evidenced by their recent losses to the Celtics, Bucks, and Lakers. But overall, they’ve been playing good ball and steadily improving and climbing the standings since the first few weeks of the season.
It’s also worth mentioning that this recent road trip featured a brutal bit of travel and scheduling, plus they did manage impressive road wins against current playoff teams, the Pacers and Pistons.
It’s hardly like all hope is lost as the team is getting back to full health, sitting at 39-22, good for third place in the Western Conference with 21 games left to figure things out and round into playoff form.
Nuggets move down another spot in week 20 power rankings
John Schuhmann of NBA.com does weekly NBA Power Rankings and has been moving the Nuggets around a lot lately. After peaking at #4 before the All-Star break, they dipped a spot last week after getting trouned by the Lakers.
And now, after a couple more losses, they’ve fallen another spot, down to #6 in this week’s version of the list. Last week it was the Lakers who jumped Denver in the rankings and this week it’s the Knicks who had a nice week and leaprogged the Nuggets as well.
Teams at the top of each conference are surging; the Cavaliers have won 10 straight and shot up to #1 in the rankings, while the Thunder are at #2 with 50 wins of their own. The defending champion Celtics round out the top 3 after their win over the Nuggets on Sunday, and the Lakers and Knicks make up the rest of the top 5.
Nuggets with chance to prove their mettle
The final stretch run of hte season should provide a nice opportunity for the Nuggets to see some of the top tier teams and prove their worth. They’ll face off against the two West teams ahead of them twice apiece in the coming weeks.
They travel to Oklahoma City for two road games against the Thunder on March 9th and 10th , then they host the Lakers on March 14th before a rematch in LA on March 19th. Those four games should act as great litmus tests and a chance to make a final statement in the power rankings before gearing up for the NBA playoffs.