All eyes in the Nuggets’ postgame locker room Sunday in Houston were on the final minutes of the Warriors and Clippers game in San Francisco.

The Clippers survived Stephen Curry’s late takeover and won, 124-119, in overtime to claim the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference and set up a first-round series against Denver.

Had Golden State won, the Nuggets would’ve faced Minnesota in a first-round series.

The Nuggets will have home-court advantage after securing the No. 4 seed with their 126-111 win over the Rockets.

The last time the Nuggets and Clippers met in the postseason was back in the 2020 bubble when the Nuggets became the first team in NBA history to come back from two 3-1 deficits in the same postseason.

A lot has changed since then. Here’s how the two teams look heading into the 2025 postseason:

The coaches

On paper, this looks like a mismatch.

Clippers coach Ty Lue has 610 regular season games to Nuggets interim coach David Adelman’s three. Lue has coached 91 playoff games, winning 54, to Adelman’s zero. The Clippers coach previously led the Cavaliers to the 2016 championship and the NBA Finals in 2017 and 2018 before becoming the Clippers’ head coach in 2020. Lue did an impressive job with the Clippers this season. The team traded Paul George in the offseason and dealt with Kawhi Leonard’s uncertain health.

Adelman’s championship ring came as a Nuggets assistant in 2023.

The 43-year-old, who joined Michael Malone’s coaching staff in 2017 and took over after Malone’s dismissal on Tuesday, has been credited with developing Denver’s offense.

Adelman’s yet to lose in three high-stakes games in charge, but this will be by far his biggest challenge yet.

The key matchup

It’s a Most Valuable Player candidate vs. a Defensive Player of the Year contender when Nikola Jokic and Ivica Zubac face off for the tipoff in Game 1.

Jokic had individual success in the matchup this season. He scored 41 points on 26 shots in the first matchup and posted a 28-point triple-double in the second matchup.

Zubac’s best game against Jokic was a 24-point, 15-rebound, four-assist showing in their first matchup of the season. The Clippers’ center totaled 19 points on 19 shots over the final two meetings.

The only other players on the Clippers’ roster listed taller than 6-foot-8 are Ben Simmons, Drew Eubanks, Trentyn Flowers and Patrick Baldwin Jr., so expect Zubac to be Jokic’s primary defender almost exclusively.

The starting fives

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As long as the Nuggets are healthy, expect Jamal Murray, Christian Braun, Michael Porter Jr. and Aaron Gordon surround Jokic in the starting five.

The Clippers have been going with Kris Dunn, James Harden, Leonard and Norman Powell around Zubac when at full strength.

Unfortunately for both teams, injuries have prevented both teams from playing together for more than half of the season. Leonard, an elite two-way contributor when available, played in just 37 games this season. Gordon started 42 games this season, but Murray and Jokic also missed more than 10 games this season.

Porter and Braun each started 77 games for Denver, while the Clippers’ only players to start more than 60 games were Zubac (80) and Harden (79).

The rest of the rotations

Denver has the best player in the series, but the Clippers have more trusted bench options.

Bogdan Bogdanovic, a midseason acquisition from Atlanta, quickly became the Clippers’ most trusted reserve in the second half of the season, Derrick Jones Jr. has been the team’s top bench wing. Jones played 18 minutes in the Clippers’ crucial overtime win over the Warriors on Sunday, while Bogdanovic was on the court for 16 minutes. Simmons (11 minutes) and Amir Coffey (4 minutes) were the only other players to Lue brought off the bench against Golden State.

Denver’s coach has tougher questions to answer when distributing his bench minutes. Second-year guard Jalen Pickett and 17-year veteran Russell Westbrook have been vying for the role as Murray’s most trusted backup. Peyton Watson looks like a lock to have his largest postseason role as a back-up forward. What Adelman does in the pivotal non-Jokic minutes in the postseason remains to be seen. His predecessor liked to use Gordon as a back-up center, but it’s unclear if Adelman sees things the same way. Gordon’s recurring calf issues this season could also complicate the decision. Should the interim coach want to play a bench big meaningful minutes, DeAndre Jordan appears to have the edge on Zeke Nnaji. Jordan played 10, seven and 11 minutes, respectively, in Adelman’s three games in charge. Nnaji didn’t play in the two previous games and didn’t take the court until the final six minutes of the blowout win in Houston.

The injury report

Both teams look largely healthy heading into Game 1.

Jamal Murray was listed as probable prior Sunday’s game with right hamstring inflammation and played nearly 25 minutes on Sunday. The few days off should be a valuable tool to get him closer to 100% for the start of a pivotal playoff run after playing in 67 of Denver’s regular-season games. Rookie DaRon Holmes II, who missed the entire season after teaching his right Achilles tendon in Denver’s first Summer League game, was the only other player on Denver’s injury report.

The Clippers were mostly at full strength for their regular-season finale. Veteran Nicolas Batum missed the game with a right groin strain, while Patty Mills was held out with an illness. Batum played in 78 games, starting seven this season. Mills played in just 12 games this season.

The season series

All four of the meetings between the Clippers and Nuggets came in the first few months of the season, meaning Leonard missed all four games.

Norman Powell’s 37-point night in both teams’ second game of the season helped the Clippers beat a full-strength Nuggets team, 109-104.

James Harden’s 39-point, 11-assist and nine-rebound performance on Dec. 1 got the Clippers off to a 2-0 start in the season series. Aaron Gordon came off the bench that night as part of his recovery from a calf strain, but Denver was otherwise healthy.

A 20-point game from Murray on Dec. 13 was enough to get their Nuggets their first win over the Clippers of the season, 120-98, thanks to one of Denver’s better defensive performances of the season. Murray’s 21-point game on Jan. 8 evened the series, 2-2, on a night the Nuggets were without Jokic.

The Nuggets outscored the Clippers 472-436 across the four games, but that means nothing now.