{"id":708422,"date":"2026-04-11T20:24:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T20:24:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/708422\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T20:24:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T20:24:32","slug":"the-thunder-hope-the-nuggets-get-the-3-seed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/708422\/","title":{"rendered":"The Thunder Hope The Nuggets Get The 3 Seed!"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Oklahoma City Thunder rested all their starters on Friday night against the Denver Nuggets, and it could be for two reasons. The first reason is to ensure no risk of injury after locking up the one seed. The second reason, though less apparent, would be a genius move if true. <\/p>\n

Modifying The Bracket<\/p>\n

\"Thunder\"Mar 9, 2026; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2) drives between Denver Nuggets defenders during the second half at Paycom Center. Mandatory Credit: Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Oklahoma City would be wise to have Denver and the San Antonio Spurs battle it out on the other side of the bracket. If the Nuggets get the third seed, they would face the Spurs in round two, and the Thunder would only have to beat one of them en route to the finals. With OKC resting their starters and rotational bench players on Friday night, Denver\u2019s chances of going to the three seed increase. <\/p>\n

Now, all the Nuggets have to do is win on Sunday against San Antonio and lock up the three seed. That is a likely scenario, as Denver will likely play their starters and the Spurs will not. Victor Wembanyama became eligible for awards after starting on Friday night, so they have no reason to start him in the final regular-season game. <\/p>\n

The Nuggets, on the other hand, have something to play for. The first thing is to capture the third seed as the Los Angeles Lakers are right behind them. The second thing is that Nikola Jokic<\/a> has not been eligible for awards yet. If he doesn\u2019t play on Sunday, his game count will be at 64, and all the individual awards will be down the drain. <\/p>\n

With those stakes in mind, the Thunder are perfectly set up. They will win round one easily, regardless of what happens between Denver and the Lakers. The major change happens in round two. <\/p>\n

Oklahoma City would much rather play a flawed Houston Rockets team or an injured Lakers team rather than Denver in round two. It\u2019s not a matter of fear of the Thunder. It\u2019s a matter of optimizing their path to the NBA Finals and becoming the first repeat champs since the 2017-2018 Golden State Warriors<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Why Not Denver And San Antonio?<\/p>\n

\"\"Feb 4, 2026; San Antonio, Texas, USA; San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama (1) dunks during the second half against the Oklahoma City Thunder at Frost Bank Center. Mandatory Credit: Scott Wachter-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

In the section above, we spoke about why the Thunder would rather just play one of these teams than both. Here, we will discuss the details of why that is. <\/p>\n

Let\u2019s begin with Denver. OKC this year is 3-0 against them with real starters playing. Despite the guady record, the Nuggets have averaged 119.3 points per game in those matchups. <\/p>\n

For a team that allows just around 106 points per game outside the matchups, that\u2019s a sizeable number. It\u2019s clear that Denver, offensively, has an answer to the Thunder that most teams don\u2019t have. Their series last year went seven games, which matters too.<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s thinner Denver rotation still pushed OKC to seven, which makes this matchup dangerous again. Those reasons could be just enough to make OKC play the bracket a little bit. <\/p>\n

The Spurs, on the other hand, are their kryptonite. In five matchups<\/a> this year, San Antonio has beaten OKC in four of the games. What\u2019s even more impressive is that the Spurs won in double digits in three of the four games. <\/p>\n

San Antonio clearly matches up well with the Thunder. 4-1 is no fluke record. OKC would love to see Denver knock the Spurs out in round two. That way, they face the Nuggets in the conference finals and would match up better against them. <\/p>\n

End Of OKC Bracket Rant<\/p>\n

\"\"Apr 4, 2026; Denver, Colorado, USA; Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic (15) shoots the ball over San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama (1) in overtime at Ball Arena. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The last day of the season matters a lot to OKC, even though they have nothing to play for. The difficulty of the path to the finals rests on three teams. The Nuggets, Spurs, and the Lakers. <\/p>\n

OKC, of course, does not fear anyone. They are more than capable of facing the hardest possible path and emerging victorious. Why, however, work harder than you need to?<\/p>\n

If OKC can eliminate one elite contender before the conference finals even begin, that\u2019s not fear, it\u2019s smart championship math<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Oklahoma City Thunder rested all their starters on Friday night against the Denver Nuggets, and it could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":708423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3781],"tags":[7,301,187,3943,6,302],"class_list":{"0":"post-708422","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-nuggets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-denver","10":"tag-denver-nuggets","11":"tag-denvernuggets","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-nuggets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116387951360889075","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708422","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=708422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/708423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=708422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=708422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=708422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}