The Nuggets face the Boston Celtics Tuesday night in the Mile High City, and once again it seems they are passing ships in the night, never destined to meet in an NBA Finals.
Denver and Boston aren’t thought of as linked together. Why would they be? Opposite conferences, have never met in a playoff series.
But there’s more tying them together than you would think.
For starters, Jayson Tatum is the only player to play as many games as Nikola Jokic has since Jokic’s “era’ began back in 2019.
Both teams thrived in the Bubble. Both teams lost in the conference finals. Both had terrible setbacks the year after. Both made significant trades that reshaped their rosters in that 2021 season.
Both teams have one title. Both teams feel they should have more. The Celtics are where Denver was last year, where it feels like they’re inevitable and that a repeat is a foregone conclusion and yet... they’re a little worse for some reason.
These teams could have met in 2022 when the Celtics lost to the Warriors, but Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. weren’t healed. They were set to meet in 2023, but Jimmy Butler and the Fluke Heat had other things to say about it, before Denver politely told them to sit down.
These teams seemed destined for a battle in June last year. Denver was the best in the West, clearly, Boston the best in the East, clearly. But as has been the case since the last time LeBron James clowned the East during the Warriors’ hayday back in 2018, we never seem to get the matchups we think we will in January.
This year, Boston seems like a good bet to return to the Finals, but quietly, their defense isn’t as good, they are losing at home, and the Cavaliers are putting together an incredible season.
For Denver, they’ve never seemed this far away from the title since 2019. Even in the injury years, you could just point to Murray’s absence.
Now Murray is back, at least in terms of minutes played, and Denver seems further than ever despite still being in prime position to finish with a top-3 seed in the West and Nikola Jokic as good as ever.
Part of the reason Denver feels so far away is showcased in this matchup. Boston will shoot so many threes that Denver will allow while they contain and allow Denver so few three point attempts that they don’t really shoot anyway.
Denver can beat Boston. But if they do, it’ll feel more like happenstance and altitude than a reflection of Denver’s dominance, no matter what statline Joker puts up.
Maybe I’m wrong and this is the year where the Celtics take care of business and the favorite returns to the Finals while Denver is the Cinderella in the West that turns the Thunder back into a Pumpkin.
But from where we’re at now, Tuesday’s matchup feels like a relic of a storied rivalry we could have had, but never quite got.
