2. Denver Nuggets – 7. San Antonio Spurs
Regular Season Series: Tied 2-2
The Denver Nuggets, despite being the two-seed and coming off a tremendous regular season, seem to be the team that no playoff squad is really that afraid of. Sure, they have a great home court advantage, but they didn’t finish the season all that strong, are largely comprised of playoff newcomers and while there’s surely talent there such as in the likes of Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic, they don’t really have much for cold-blooded killers that strike fear into their opposition.
Denver will either make a statement and prove the doubters wrong in a big way or they’ll live up to their questionable playoff reputation and fall short. In facing the San Antonio Spurs in the first round, they may be in significant danger of the latter. Of course, this isn’t like the Spurs teams of old led by Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker that could out-grind just about any team in existence. But with Gregg Popovich at the helm, they’re a group that can never be counted out.
Popovich is a legendary game planner and an incredible leader that most certainly will have a well thought out strategy in line for containing the Nuggets. He’ll easily have the edge in the chess match against Mike Malone. Not to mention, LaMarcus Aldridge and DeMar DeRozan are both big-time performers with an extensive playoff resume. They’ll be in a situation to step up and show off their experience against a Nuggets team that’s quite new to the big stage.
Denver is the favorite here, but I’m actually leaning towards experience and superior coaching paying massive dividends. Some may find this surprising, but I’m going with the Spurs to pull off the upset and topple a Nuggets team that is unaccustomed to this level of intensity and pressure.
The X-factor for the Spurs will be their role players such as Rudy Gay and Patty Mills, who will have to play well to support Aldridge and DeRozan. If they do so, then I have full confidence in Popovich’s tactical genius providing enough of a boost to lift the Spurs over a generally more talented Nuggets team.
Prediction: Spurs in 6