This morning, the Nuggets are in a tie for the eighth spot in the NBA's Western Conference Playoff Standings with the Golden State Warriors. If they finish in a tie, the Nuggets have the tiebreak. That is the good news.
As for the bad news, well, yeah, there is a little of that too.
It mostly revolves around a lost weekend for the Nuggets. They had a chance to reasonably be up one full game on Golden State and considering how tight the West has been this season, that small one game edge, may end up meaning a lot more than the razor thin edge it indicates.
The Nuggets had two supposedly "easy" games in front of them. Then, something funny happened. Those "easy" games became much "harder" than they could have imagined. The only teams in the NBA that have beaten every team at least once are the Hornets and the Jazz, so there is a level of parity League wide. Simply put, even terrible teams can rise to the occasion---and the Nuggets discovered that the hard way.
On Saturday, the Nuggets played the Kings at home. Denver was 31-7 at home, Sacramento was 12-27 on the road. Final score: Kings 118, Nuggets 115. If the Nuggets do not make the Playoffs, this is a game they will look back at as one that got away.
Afterwards, Kings head coach Reggie Theus seemed to think his team had just defeated a rather ordinary team and winning this game was really not a big deal. He said his guys played harder and that provided the difference. Interesting comments, considering, Theus was missing two of his better players in Ron Artest and Brad Miller. His top young player, Kevin Martin, was battling the flu. The Kings had nothing to play for, the Nuggets had everything to play for. The Nuggets were missing Kenyon Martin. Still, the talent edge was in Denver's considerable favor. However, as has been the case a little too often this season, the intensity edge was with the opposition.
On Sunday, the Nuggets were looking to bounce back at Seattle. They had defeated the Sonics three times this season and the closest game was a 17 point Nuggets victory. Their last meeting saw the Nuggets score a franchise regular season record 168 points. The Sonics had only 17 wins coming into the game.
At the outset, this seemed like the perfect storm in a city known for storms: An angry Nuggets team coming off an embarrassing loss looking to regain some momentum against a team they had dominated all season.
Final score: Sonics 151 Nuggets 147. Any day, I'm sure they'll start playing that defense that Coach George Karl has been asking for.
Here is the real problem with these losses. On Thursday, the Nuggets play the Warriors at The Oracle Arena out in Oakland. Had they won both of these games this weekend, even if they lose that game at Golden State, it would have most likely given them a cushion heading into that game. Now, their margin of error is more or less gone. The question remains, thanks to this weekend, could their playoff chances be gone soon too?
Have a great day.
-"z"
