How Nuggets Are Impacted by Recent Lakers, Rockets Wins

While the Denver Nuggets had an off-night on Thursday before taking on their penultimate regular season game vs. the Oklahoma City Thunder, it wouldn't be without some notable action going down around the Western Conference.

In particular, it would be the LA Lakers and Houston Rockets being the ones seeing their stock on the rise following both of their big wins late in the season. The Lakers would claim a dominant 16-point win over the Golden State Warriors, while Houston took care of business against the Joel Embiid-less Philadelphia 76ers.

With that in mind, it now changes some things for the Nuggets and how they may approach some things moving forward.

More specifically, it now gives us a big hint of what to expect in terms of Denver's overall availability for their matchup against the Thunder:

Nuggets Almost Certain to Play Big 3 vs. Thunder

Mar 1, 2026; Denver, Colorado, USA; Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray (27) and forward Aaron Gordon (32) and center Nikola Jokic (15) on the bench during the second quarter against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Ball Arena. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images | Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

The one big Nuggets fallout of those two West teams walking away within a win on Thursday centers upon what's to come for the status of their top three players on the roster.

Each of Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, and Aaron Gordon has all been deemed questionable rolling into the night with their respective minor injuries— all of which were announced before any of the games have tipped off between the Lakers and Rockets.

The Nuggets were certainly keeping a close eye on both of those games for LA and Houston. Had both of them fallen short, it could've effectively clinched a top-four seed in the conference for Denver, and more importantly, home court advantage in their first-round series, whoever it may be against.

However, both teams proved they weren't going out quietly in their efforts to shoot further up the conference leaderboard. That means for now, Denver still has an incentive to play their top guys, and likely will against the Thunder to try and make their third-seed status official.

Lakers and Rockets won tonight.

Denver’s magic number to clinch a higher seed than Houston remains 1.

To clinch a higher seed than LA, it remains 2.

Nuggets can still finish 3rd, 4th or 5th. Timberwolves (most likely), Rockets, Lakers (least likely) all in play as R1 matchups.
— Bennett Durando (@BennettDurando) April 10, 2026

The Thunder have already made it clear that they'll be resting nearly all of their impactful rotational players against Denver. That could make this one a cakewalk for the Nuggets to extend their win streak even further to 11, and near closer their goal of a top-three seed that once seemed like a pipe dream considering the ups and downs faced earlier this season.

If the Nuggets do take care of business over the Thunder as expected on Friday, paired with one Lakers loss, it'll lock in Denver to face the sixth-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round; a team they've already bested 3-1 in this year's season series, and currently has Anthony Edwards dealing with a knee injury.

Time will tell if Denver will get a chance to keep that success going against the Timberwolves come time for the postseason, but the first order of business is to secure that first-round date with a win over the Thunder in the first place.

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