Thunder has not rolled like this since Garth Brooks’ hit in 1991.
Oklahoma City is irritating, but never stops winning. The Thunder arrive in Denver on Friday with the Western Conference’s No. 1 seed secured, and victories in 19 of their last 20 games.
They have the Great One in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the runaway favorite for back-to-back MVP honors. And the Grate One in Lu Dort, the willing villain in this budding rivalry. They also have roughly nine players named Jalen Williams, each better than the last.
The Thunder are a problem. And not the only one. The Spurs are not going anywhere, too young to know any better.
So as much as we want to declare the Nuggets a championship team — they own their first 10-game winning streak since 2013 — understand what that means.
It would require making history. No biggie, right?
The Nuggets are on a well-timed heater with the playoffs lurking. A week ago, a Friday smackdown with the Thunder would have been must-watch theatre, but the stakes have changed. Denver has snatched the No. 3 seed from the free-falling Lakers, and OKC has no reason to play its starters.
So this is not the litmus test we all wanted.
Soon enough, we will find out if the Nuggets’ frailties are too prominent to advance through the postseason turnstiles.
They have qualities that could, even should, make them the best. They also have issues that could leave them burdened by regret.
How can a team with Nikola Jokic, once again assuming the title of best player in the world, be vulnerable?
How can a team playing like this get clobbered over the head in the playoffs?
There are two things that you need to get comfortable with if convinced a parade sequel is possible: The 2006 Miami Heat. And defense.
Miami is the last champion to topple multiple 60-win teams in the postseason. Since 1993, it has only been done by the Bulls (three times), the 1995 Rockets and Heat. The Magic knocked out a pair of 60-win clubs in 2009, but lost in the Finals to the Lakers.
Five times in 33 seasons resulted in a ring, and more than half of the feats involved Michael Jordan. It doesn’t exactly soothe the nerves.
OKC makes the skin crawl, and San Antonio’s new car smell is annoying, but taking them both out would be more impressive than Rocky’s half-court bank shot.
It would be the most unlikely title since the 1997 Broncos, who eliminated the Chiefs and Steelers on the road and dismissed the Packers as the biggest underdog since the Jets in Super Bowl III. That team, forever remembered in our region, was motivated to capture the franchise’s first title for John Elway.
Win one for Jonas doesn’t exactly have the same ring to it.
But if you don’t believe in the Nuggets now, you never will. They have capitalized on a soft stretch in a league where one-third of the teams are tanking. Their health has improved, save for Peyton Watson’s absence, and their opening night starting lineup is 18-5.
The Nuggets outlasted the Spurs last Saturday, an overtime victory where Jokic served notice to Victor Wembanyama that he can make his MVP case at the podium, but not on the court against him.
Everything about the victory illustrated what could make this 2023 all over again.
But the truth is, the Nuggets caught a break that postseason. They plowed through the Timberwolves, Suns, Lakers and Heat. Not one of those opponents had 46 regular-season wins, let alone 60.
The Nuggets need not apologize for the path, but it was the autobahn compared to the mountainous terrain that awaits.
What makes the climb so tough? The Nuggets’ flirtation with defense.
“I think we need to do a better job of (it),” guard Christian Braun said.
Or as coach David Adelman put it, “At some point you have to sit down and guard.”
As it stands, there is poetry in the Nuggets’ offense, but no symmetry with all other phases. In recent wins, the Nuggets yielded 72 first-half points to the Blazers — rhymes with average — and the barnstorming Memphis G-League All-Stars. c
They suffocated the Blazers in the fourth. And the Grizzlies in the third.
Why does it take embarrassment to get that type of effort?
The wins are something. But they will mean nothing if the Nuggets cannot play on both ends of the floor.
The dirty little secret is this: The Nuggets will not survive prolonged defensive lapses against the Spurs or Thunder, especially on the road. And they will have to steal a game on those courts to move on.
“We have flipped defensively at some point in all these games. We have been inconsistent all year with that,” Adelman admitted. “When we get stops and defensive rebounds… we get fast break points to complement the shooting, the post-ups, all those things, and we are really hard to beat.”
The Nuggets have demonstrated they can do it. But it requires, as Adelman explained, “really good focus.” There can be hiccups. Not gasps. There can be mistakes. But not a layup line of blow-bys.
The Nuggets are impossible to guard when they blend transition buckets with their half-court motion offense. They have the lineup and the bench to defeat any of their playoff opponents. They also have a defense that could deliver a first-round exit.
Go ahead, feel good about what the Nuggets are doing, about where they stand.
But stopping the clap of Thunder and rattle of Spurs calls for something special. It demands going down in history for making one of the most improbable playoff runs our state has ever seen.
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