How Does Denver Nuggets' Late-Season Slump Impact Phoenix Suns?
Despite being the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference for a large portion of the season, the Denver Nuggets have been rapidly declining in March. The Nuggets seemingly unreachable lead over the Western Conference has vanished to just 3.5 games.
They are 3-5 over their last eight games, beating just one team over .500 in the Brooklyn Nets. Their other wins came in blowout fashion against the Detroit Pistons and Washington Wizards.
Former MVP-favorite, Nikola Jokic, has perhaps been at the heart of this problem. Statistically speaking, Jokic has been on a tear, averaging 26.0 PPG, 13.1 RPG, and 9.0 APG thus far in March. However, these stats seem to be inflated by garbage time minutes.
Furthermore, Jokic has been lackluster in the clutch over this stretch, passing up multiple opportunities to score. Even when taking the big-time shots, he hasn't been able to knock them down. He had not one, but two excellent looks at potential game-changing three's against the New York Knicks. He also missed a game-tying free throw and two potential game-winning shots against the Nets in their first meeting of the month.
The highlight of these recent struggles is that they haven't even been against elite teams. Three of their last five losses were against teams with a sub-.500 record. This is where the impact on the Phoenix Suns comes into play.
Playoff implications:
The Phoenix Suns are among the favorites in the NBA to win the title this season despite sitting as the five seed in the West. The addition of Kevin Durant instantly made them true contenders for the championship. That said, this is still a highly-competitive Western Conference, and it's certainly not a cakewalk to the NBA Finals.
The Nuggets' decline in play at the worst time possible is a positive sign for the remaining Western Conference teams as even the one seed appears to be struggling. Even so, the Nuggets remain favorites in the West, with +280 odds as opposed to +290 for the Suns, according to Betting AZ. This season has been a strange year for the West as the 12th seed is just three games behind the four seed, while the four seed is 10.5 games back from the Nuggets.
Aside from Denver, the only teams in the West that have shown consistency are the Memphis Grizzlies and the Sacramento Kings. In the Grizzlies' case they've been in a mess surrounding the Ja Morant drama, and any postseason success is unpredictable. As for the Kings, they have little-to-no postseason experience, making the possibility of them going the distance highly unlikely, thus making the Nuggets Phoenix's biggest competition.
The small sample size we saw of Durant on the Suns was very reassuring, as they were very successful. With the recent trends, Phoenix should be the most feared team in the Western Conference. Again, nothing will be easy or guaranteed, but the road to the finals will be much easier without a dominant team in the first three seeds of the Western Conference.
