Playoff Preview: How Suns, Nuggets Stack Against Each Other
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The Phoenix Suns have officially clinched a spot in the Western Conference semi-finals as they match up with the West's top seed in the Denver Nuggets.
Both teams had a rocky outing in the first round despite each wrapping their series up in five games each. Denver’s win was more convincing due to their dominant first couple of games, though they began to slip a little towards the end of the series. With both teams being elite, this will be a primetime playoff matchup and popcorn will be on deck at all times.
Let’s take a look at the matchup between two of the top squads in the West:
How Suns Outmatch Nuggets Offensively
Offensively, Phoenix’s top five is lethal. While their bench is weak, they will have their starters in for 40+ minutes each outside of Torrey Craig who still managed to average over 12 PPG in just 25 minutes a contest.
The duo of Kevin Durant and Devin Booker has proved to be unbelievably good thus far in the playoffs with Booker averaging 37.2 PPG, 6.4 APG, and 5.0 RPG and Durant averaging 28.4 PPG, 7.6 RPG, and 6.2 APG with the two being a combined +68 on the floor.
Strictly numbers-wise, they have been ridiculous. That said, the Suns as a team did show some struggle against a Los Angeles Clippers team that was without Paul George and Kawhi Leonard for most of the series. That struggle is the biggest concern heading into the second round.
Similarly to the Suns, the Nuggets have a very filthy offense. They have an unbelievable duo in Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic with supporting pieces like Michael Porter Jr. and Aaron Gordon.
Structurally they are very similar, but outside of Jokic, it appears that the Nuggets’ players aren’t on the same level as the Suns. They are easily a deeper team, but in a playoff game with bench players getting very little playing time, it doesn’t make much of a difference.
Furthermore, for Murray - a player that averaged 20 PPG in the regular season - it’s unlikely he will continue to average 27+ PPG in the playoffs, especially when he has averaged 21 PPG against the Suns this season.
The Nuggets have a really strong offense, but the Suns have an edge over them in terms of scoring and that may be what gives them a victory in this round.
Deandre Ayton struggled a bit in the first round but still managed to average a 16-PPG double-double. Paul also didn’t play great but he is nearly averaging a double-double in the playoffs as well. To go one step further, the players surrounding Jokic are there primarily for Jokic to set up, whereas the players surrounding Booker and Durant can not only take matters into their own hands but carry the load in assists and rebounds, taking pressure off of the two to do everything.
What the Regular Seasons Matchups Have Told us
The Suns and Nuggets matched up four times this season and ended up splitting the season series 2-2. This goes to show just how even this playoff matchup projects. However, two of these matchups were before Durant made his debut with Phoenix and the Suns became a completely different team after the trade.
Phoenix did win both matchups with Durant, but none of the Nuggets’ stars were playing. What could be a cause for concern is that neither of those two wins were blowouts, but more than anything those games were to get Durant settled into Phoenix before the playoffs.
Long story short: The regular season unfortunately didn’t tell us anything that would be helpful for this round two matchup. Unless you take the Nuggets’ regular season success but the Suns only had their star duo for a number of games and the NBA is a completely different league in the playoffs.
As it stands now, the Suns have the second-best odds (+425) to win the NBA Finals only behind the Boston Celtics according to sportsbookonline.com. If Phoenix can make it past Denver their chances at the championship will look very good. It will be a very interesting and intense matchup, but the Suns just have a tad more star power to help them get to the Western Conference Finals.
Prediction: Suns win in six games.
