This season has been a rollercoaster ride for the Denver Nuggets. A season that has warranted nearly 30 starting lineups, the emergence of a potential cornerstone, and the opportunity to end the franchise’s three-year playoff dry spell all comes down to one game.
With the Denver losing three of their last five games, Portland eclipsed Denver in the standings for the eighth seed, making the road to the playoffs much more difficult for the Nuggets.
On Tuesday, the Nuggets square off against the Portland Trail Blazers in a must-win game for Denver’s hopes at the playoffs to remain feasible. Both teams sit at 35-38, with Portland holding the division, conference and head-to-head tiebreakers over Denver. That mixed with the fact that the Blazers schedule is far and above easier than the Nuggets puts the pressure on Denver to grind out a win to keep their season alive.
“It’s going to be a tough game,” Nuggets veteran forward Darrell Arthur said. “It’s going to be a scrappy battle, so we’ve got to go in and compete and play a full 48 [minutes]. We have to finish this season out strong.”
Denver’s top tier offense since the All-Star break will need to show up for the Nuggets to have a chance. Portland’s defense has struggled all season long, ranking 22nd in the league this season in defensive rating. That said, the Blazers defense has seemingly turned a corner since the All-Star break, upping their defensive rating to 10th best in the league since the layoff.
In addition to defensive improvement, former Nugget, Jusuf Nurkic, has been a force for Portland since he was traded back in February. Since joining the Blazers, Nurkic is averaging a double-double a game with 14.0 points and 10.1 rebounds per contest. Nurkic will matchup against center Nikola Jokic, making for a pivotal, game-deciding matchup.
The Nuggets will have to be locked in, energized, and keen in order to swipe this game on the road. Over the course of the season, the Nuggets have constantly flirted with implosion, but have managed to continue to tread over the duration of the campaign. They are battled tested and have yet to boil over; however, they have yet to face a test of this magnitude, with the circumstances as critical as they are.
The question is this: Which Nuggets team is going to show up?
At times Denver has played at an elite level this season, thus the reason they managed to defeat the Boston Celtics (twice), Golden State Warriors, and Cleveland Cavaliers all by double digits. In other instances, the Nuggets have floundered, losing in embarrassing fashion to bottom feeders by the likes of the Philadelphia 76ers, Brooklyn Nets, and Minnesota Timberwolves.
All in all, the ball is still in the Nuggets court. A win tonight would allow Denver to reclaim the eighth seed with just eight games to go; however, a loss would put a fork in what has been one of the most compelling Nuggets seasons in recent time.
