Analysis: The Nuggets snapped a playoff drought with a top seed. The reward? Expectations for an upset.
Nikola Jokic's breakthrough season has delivered the Nuggets to the playoffs for the first time since 2013. By Ben Golliver Ben Golliver NBA reporter Email Bio Follow April 11 at 10:23 AM OAKLAND, Calif. — On a recent flight to Texas, Nikola Jokic’s wheels began spinning. The 24-year-old center was midway through his first all-star campaign, on track to lead the Denver Nuggets to the playoffs for the first time since 2013.
“The cynicism is fair,” Connelly said during a telephone interview last week. “We haven’t been to the playoffs in five years. We don’t know how we’re going to respond when the lights are brighter. Internally, we’re very confident. We’ve set ourselves up to make some real noise. We’re respectful of the playoffs being a different game, but we feel like we can beat anybody.”
Yet those developments are often overshadowed by knee-jerk concerns over his sheer size. Jokic is bigger and slower than most NBA centers, and the West’s elite teams have picked apart other 7-footers. Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert, for one, fell victim to the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets in successive postseasons.
Even though their potential shortcomings are plain to see, the Nuggets’ case to advance in the playoffs is straightforward too. They boast the West’s best home record and they share the ball better than everyone but the Warriors. In a surprising twist given their youth, they also rank among the NBA’s five best clutch teams and have posted a sparkling 30-15 record in games that were within five points in the last five minutes.
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