It’s here. It’s what everyone’s been waiting for. The NBA Cup!
Seriously though, there’s not a lot of excitement from Denver Nuggets fans about this competition within the grand scope of the larger NBA season, and for good reason.
Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets have championship aspirations this year, and that means building championship habits en route to one of the most pivotal playoff runs in franchise history. Anything that takes away from that singular focus almost feels superfluous this year.
Although, it’s important to celebrate the little victories along the way, and what could be more fun for the team than spending some time in Las Vegas in December after winning their group stage games? Well…maybe a lot of things. I don’t know.
Anyway, here are the Groups!
The Nuggets are in Group C with the Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets, Portland Trail Blazers, and San Antonio Spurs, likely a tougher group than the NBA realized going into the seeding. The combined records for all five teams is 17-7, not exactly a balanced grouping.
Denver will face Portland tonight in the introduction to Group Play. There will be a crazy, colorful court, maybe some alternate jerseys, but other than that, it’s the same game. It costs the same on the regular season standings and is only meant to double up as a seeding opportunity for the NBA Cup Elimination Stage.
There can only be one winner from the group, but there’s also a wildcard spot that goes to the team with the next best record (or failing that, best point differential) across the other groups. That means the Nuggets, in order to have a shot at advancing, must go at least 3-1 in Group Play to have a shot. 4-0 of course guarantees their placement.
Here are all of the games Denver will play in this group over the next month:
- Friday, October 31st (Tonight) @ Portland Trail Blazers on Altitude
- Friday, November 7th vs Golden State Warriors on PRIME
- Friday, November 21st @ Houston Rockets on PRIME
- Friday, November 28th vs San Antonio Spurs on Altitude
Denver will never play these games on the second night of a back-to-back, and their schedule through the first month of the season is relatively straightforward. If the Nuggets want, they can go hard for these games and really try to win every singel one; however, I don’t expect the Nuggets to try extra hard for these matchups because it’s an NBA Cup Game. Now, they will try to get revenge vs the Warriors (who won on Opening Night) but not because of the NBA Cup.
Overall, the Cup is another layer the NBA is attempting to add to the mix by making the games at the beginning of the season a little different. We will see if it works. Viewership is up across the NBA in part due to their new partnerships with NBC and PRIME, but I have my doubts that the NBA Cup will contribute to that.
We will see how the Nuggets approach this game tonight. Jamal Murray is Questionable with a left calf strain. The NBA Cup isn’t going to change the outlook of whether he should play through that injury or not.