{"id":161749,"date":"2025-07-10T22:35:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T22:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/161749\/"},"modified":"2025-07-10T22:35:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T22:35:13","slug":"nuggets-on-potential-playoff-seeding-we-dont-fear-anybody","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/161749\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuggets on potential playoff seeding: “We don’t fear anybody”"},"content":{"rendered":"

After the immediate cascade of bitter emotions washed over them, after they stopped rehashing the disastrous finish<\/a> and nursing their sore limbs, the Nuggets allowed a more optimistic perspective to set in.<\/p>\n

Their double-overtime loss to the Timberwolves<\/a> this week was inseparable from its context \u2014 the continuation of a humbling head-to-head losing streak \u2014 but they also could take solace in the point they had proven to themselves without their second- and third-leading scorers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know there\u2019s a lot of talk: \u2018Do our guys not want to play (in the playoffs) against Minnesota? Are they scared of Minnesota?\u2019 \u2026 We don\u2019t fear anybody,\u201d coach Michael Malone said late Tuesday. \u201cI know we can beat anybody, on any given night, in any matchup.\u201d<\/p>\n

Psychological silver linings after a brutal loss might\u2019ve seemed dubious from the outside, but they felt necessary within the hallways of Ball Arena, where the Nuggets, at minimum, wanted a dose of confidence. After all, they had failed that night to accomplish either of their more tangible goals, which are usually at odds with this time of year: maximizing playoff seeding and limiting physical strain on key players.<\/p>\n

Checking one box often requires willingness to sacrifice the other. The loss to Minnesota was a perfect encapsulation of the tightrope walk. Malone was prepared to make that sacrifice by playing Nikola Jokic 40 consecutive minutes to end the game in pursuit of a win. It backfired. Jokic is averaging a career-high 36.7 minutes per game, two more than last season. Denver\u2019s other starters were too taxed to play the next night as well.<\/p>\n

It was enough to bring back memories of Game 7 last season, when Jokic and company seemed to be running on empty, helpless to fend off a Minnesota comeback.<\/p>\n

Generally, though, Malone still feels this season is different. He oversaw an intentionally brief practice session last Monday before the Timberwolves game. Afterward, he was asked how he felt entering April about Denver\u2019s preseason goal to feel more rested going into the playoffs than they did last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll give an unfortunate answer to that,\u201d the 10th-year Nuggets coach said. \u201cI think guys will be much better-rested than last year because of the injuries that we\u2019ve had. You look at Aaron Gordon\u2019s games missed. You look at Jamal (Murray). You look at Nikola missing the 10 days that he missed with multiple injuries that he\u2019s been dealing with. So I know on paper Nikola\u2019s minutes are probably at a career high, but I think overall \u2026 we\u2019re in a good place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Malone has a point. Jokic\u2019s per-game workload may be excessive, but his total minutes are still on track to finish comfortably below his career-high 2,737 played in the 2023-24 regular season. And that was fresh off an NBA Finals run into a short offseason.<\/p>\n

While the Nuggets sacrificed rest to prioritize the standings on Tuesday, they had done the opposite in late March by playing it safe with a banged-up Jokic. The three-time MVP missed five consecutive games for the first time since December 2017, back when he hadn\u2019t even made an All-Star Game yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think one through 10, everybody can beat everybody,\u201d Jokic said. \u201cSo I think as a group, we need to be healthy and be as ready as possible. So I think seeding, yes of course, we want to (have home-court advantage).\u201d<\/p>\n

But if multiple starters are injured while hosting a series? \u201cIt\u2019s not worth it,\u201d he said bluntly.<\/p>\n

Gordon had missed 31 games this season as of Friday, saying recently that his calf finally feels relatively fresh. Murray had missed five of the last nine, easing toward the playoffs while dealing with hamstring inflammation. Denver\u2019s core four had combined to sit out 60 games, as opposed to 36 last season.<\/p>\n

And so as the Nuggets arrived in Golden State for another critical game, they had used 10 different starting lineups in the previous 11 games, patching together a 5-6 stretch that was just enough to remain in the mix for third place.<\/p>\n

As evidenced by the full-fledged approach to the Minnesota game, they haven\u2019t lost sight of the other priority yet. The Western Conference standings remain in flux. The difference between third and fourth place could be massive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re trying to get the highest seed we can, you know?\u201d Michael Porter Jr. said. \u201cAll these teams are so close, and down the stretch, home-court advantage could be a big thing, especially for us and how well we tend to play at home. \u2026 But at the end of the day, every team from the play-in teams to the No. 1 seed, it\u2019s really tough. I feel like these playoffs (are) going to be very entertaining.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the Nuggets earn the No. 3 seed, their hypothetical path to the NBA Finals would likely avoid the Thunder and Lakers until the Western Conference Finals \u2014 and avoid one of those two opponents altogether.<\/p>\n

If they finish as the No. 4 seed, their road could go through Oklahoma City in the second round and Los Angeles in the third.<\/p>\n

If that\u2019s part of their thought process, they\u2019ll never admit to it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any matchups we\u2019re trying to avoid or anything like that,\u201d Porter said.<\/p>\n

Even Minnesota, which remains a plausible first-round draw. Denver has lost six in a row head-to-head. But in the midst of an emotionally charged and physically draining night, it was easy to forget the Nuggets were missing Murray and Porter while the Wolves were missing Donte DiVincenzo and Naz Reid.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we beat them, we won the championship, so I think we can beat them (in a series),\u201d Jokic said. \u201cIt\u2019s players hurt, players are different. They are a good team. Give them credit. But I think we are good, too. In playoffs, everything is different. So it can happen. They can beat us, but I think we can beat them, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want more Nuggets news? Sign up for the Nuggets Insider to get all our NBA analysis.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After the immediate cascade of bitter emotions washed over them, after they stopped rehashing the disastrous finish and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3782],"tags":[877,2276,7,765,301,187,766,3636,165,251,4231,764,307,152,3954,252,6,1220,253,302,66,308,574,3460],"class_list":{"0":"post-161749","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-timberwolves","8":"tag-aaron-gordon","9":"tag-ball-arena","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-colorado","12":"tag-denver","13":"tag-denver-nuggets","14":"tag-front-range","15":"tag-injuries","16":"tag-latest-headlines","17":"tag-los-angeles","18":"tag-michael-malone","19":"tag-michael-porter","20":"tag-minnesota","21":"tag-minnesota-timberwolves","22":"tag-minnesotatimberwolves","23":"tag-more-nuggets-news","24":"tag-nba","25":"tag-nba-finals","26":"tag-nikola-jokic","27":"tag-nuggets","28":"tag-sports","29":"tag-timberwolves","30":"tag-western-conference","31":"tag-western-conference-finals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114831328949241364","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}