The Denver Nuggets have made the playoffs for the eighth straight year.
This year’s run begins with a best-of-seven series against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Game 1 is 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 18. It will be played in Denver and televised on Amazon’s Prime Video service.
Tickets are starting at $87 as of Monday.
The rest of the series’ games haven’t been scheduled yet. They’ll follow this pattern:
- Game 1 in Denver
- Game 2 in Denver
- Game 3 in Minneapolis
- Game 4 in Minneapolis
- Game 5 (if necessary) in Denver
- Game 6 (if necessary) in Minneapolis
- Game 7 (please don’t be necessary) in Denver
How did this season go?
The Nuggets entered this year with tons of promise, having traded one really talented but expensive guy (Michael Porter Jr.) in order to bring in a bunch of interesting players.
That trade has worked out pretty well, bringing in Tim Hardaway Jr. (3-pointers all day), Cam Johnson (bit of everything) and Jonas Valančiūnas (giant).
Unfortunately, the team has been absolutely dogged by injuries. Every starter except Jamal Murray (does cool stuff) missed lots of games.
Still, the team ended up with 54 wins and 28 losses, and they won their final 12 games in a row. That’s pretty great, tied for the team’s third-best record since joining the NBA in 1976.
Murray had the best year of his career, and Nikola Jokić (giant wizard) is back to best-in-the-world vibes after his injury. Peyton Watson (aka P-Wat) also ascended before getting injured a bunch. Bruce Brown (big mouth) also returned to the team and played all 82 games, looking really good by the end.
The team also has other members, who this author loves mostly equally, especially the bench players who carried the team through rough spots. Sadly, CSU alum and recent breakout David Roddy is not eligible to play in the postseason due to his limited contract.
Great, how do we win?
The Nuggets face a really tough but entertaining path to try to win a second NBA title.
First, they have to deal with the Timberwolves, with whom they have beef. The Nuggets eliminated the Wolves in 2023. (Denver went on to win it all that year.) Then the Wolves returned the favor in a heartbreaking Game 7 in 2024.
The Timberwolves haven’t been quite as good this year, but the matchup is worrying to fans who have seen them frustrate Denver in recent years.
Denver will have home-court advantage for this first round. That means that if the series goes to seven games, four of them would be played in Denver. Win your home games and you win the series.
If the Nuggets advance, it likely gets tougher. They could face the San Antonio Spurs (62 wins) in the second series. The Spurs have the extremely tall, phenomenally talented, chess-playing Victor Wembanyama. (It’s fun to hear announcers yell “WEMBANYAMA.”) The Nuggets were 3-1 against the Spurs in the regular season, although Wembanyama was out for most of those games.
After that, the likely opponent in the Western Conference Finals would be the Oklahoma City Thunder (64 wins). They eliminated the Nuggets and won the championship last year (and are annoying, no offense).
The Nuggets were 1-3 against the Thunder this year, although the games were all competitive.
It’s worth noting that while the Spurs and Thunder are scary, they’re also a little scared of us. Both teams tried to work the standings to try to avoid the Nuggets, who are definitely the third-best team in the conference.
The winner of the conference finals heads to the NBA Finals.
Where can I watch the games with friends?
The team will host free viewing parties for all Round 1 and (fingers crossed) Round 2 games for both the Nuggets and the Colorado Avalanche.
The “Base Camp 5280 Fan Zone” will put the games on a 20-foot video board on Chopper Circle near Ball Arena. There also will be food trucks, music and whatnot. You will need a free digital pass to attend.
If either team reaches the conference finals, attendees will have to pay for the watch parties. All proceeds will go to Kroenke Sports Charities.
You could also head to your local sports bar. This reporter found either Stoney’s location to be a consistent good bet. There’s also the Olde Town Tavern and Grill in Arvada, which has plenty of seating and possibly too many TVs.
The DNVR Bar on Colfax puts on a great party, but can be tough to squeeze into. If you want to be near the arena, head to Brooklyn’s.
Tom’s Watch Bar in McGregor Square specializes in this kind of thing. I hear good things about BurnDown on South Broadway.
I’m partial to The Brutal Poodle on Broadway, since that’s where I saw the team win its first championship. It doesn’t bill itself as a sports bar, but it had good viewing, good service and a good crowd, at least for the Finals.
Feel free to send your own recommendations.
How much TV do I need?
The playoffs will be split between Prime Video, NBC/Peacock and ESPN/ABC. But it’s not clear yet where the rest of the Nuggets’ first-round games will air.
Overall, you’ve got a couple options to inundate your eyeballs with basketball:
- You could combine an Amazon subscription with a cable package
- You could pay for Amazon, Peacock Premium and ESPN Unlimited
- You could pay for Amazon and use an antenna to catch the NBC and ABC games. (I’m not sure yet how many playoff games will be broadcast over-the-air locally.)
Prime Video is $15, Peacock Premium is $11 and ESPN Unlimited is $30 per month. It’s all kind of exhausting.
