Every week is important in the NBA. It’s important to always stay on top of your schedule in the NBA or risk falling behind the rest of your conference in the playoff standings.
For the Denver Nuggets, this week matters for a number of reasons. It begins with a three-game home stretch, followed by a road game.
- Tuesday, the Nuggets will welcome the defending champion Boston Celtics to Ball Arena.
- Wednesday, the Nuggets play a back-to-back against the Los Angeles Clippers.
- Friday, the Nuggets host the Brooklyn Nets.
- Sunday, the Nuggets go back on the road to play the Dallas Mavericks.
(They will also stay in Dallas for a second game against the Mavericks on Tuesday, but that’s a “next week” problem.)
Let’s start with the Boston matchup. It’s the 2024 NBA champions vs the 2023 NBA champions. The Celtics are 26-10 this season and possess the third best record in the NBA. They’re struggling of late though, going just 5-5 in their last 10 games, including a hard-fought loss against the Oklahoma City Thunder yesterday afternoon.
This is a measuring stick game for Denver, plain and simple. How close are the Nuggets to the top of the league? The Celtics and Thunder are the favorites right now for a reason. Let’s see how well or poorly the Nuggets match up with the Celtics perimeter attack. Expect them to take a bunch of three-pointers. Can the Nuggets keep up?
Next, the LA Clippers. The Nuggets initially lost the tiebreaker with the Clippers, but the league added an additional game to Denver’s schedule vs the Clippers following the NBA Cup. The Nuggets won, and if they win this one too, Denver splits the tiebreaker instead. Denver’s currently 20-14 and LA’s at 20-15, so this could matter by the end of the year.
Friday, the Nuggets face the Brooklyn Nets, a team they barely defeated in overtime in the fourth game of the year. Since then, the Nets have traded Dennis Schroder and Dorian Finney-Smith in separate deals, and they’re clearly starting the tank. The Nuggets better facilitate them on that path to the bottom.
Finally, the Mavericks. They’re going to be missing Luka Doncic, and Kyrie Irving is also managing a back issue. The Nuggets already lost to the Mavericks without Luka once, and they could of course do it again. It’s on Denver to make sure that doesn’t happen again this time around. These are massively important games for playoff seeding and tiebreakers.
Will the Nuggets lock in this week and go 4-0? It’s unlikely, but it would certainly set the tone for another mini renaissance.
Will the Nuggets go 2-2 and continue to show their inconsistencies?
Will the Nuggets go worse than that and cause the panic meter to spike again?
How the Nuggets handle this week (and the rest of January) could have major implications at the February trade deadline and beyond.
