KO'd in Denver, defending champ Nuggets face unfamiliar test
Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic.
Boxing legend Mike Tyson once famously said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” Well, the Nuggets have been punched in the mouth. The question now becomes, how will the defending NBA champions respond?
The Timberwolves lead Denver 2-0 in the Western Conference semifinals. Minnesota didn’t just steal homecourt advantage from them; they ransacked the place, putting the Nuggets in unfamiliar territory, and not just because the series has now shifted to a flyover state.
As the Nuggets won their first NBA title a year ago, they did so without trailing in a playoff series. This does not denigrate that championship run, as no asterisk is required. It does beg the question: Can this Nuggets team handle adversity?
Champions who go 16-4 during their playoff run, as Denver did last season, deserve all the kudos. Now, the Nuggets will be tested.
In the second round of the 2020 playoffs, Denver overcame a 3-1 series deficit to defeat the Los Angeles Clippers, but that was in the COVID-19 NBA bubble. There was no travel, few fans and no homecourt advantage involved. If the Lakers’ NBA title from that season will be discounted, we should treat the other postseason accomplishments equally.
Game 3 of the series against Minnesota will have a different feel for Denver. The Nuggets will roll into a Target Center filled with frothing T-wolves fans who have been waiting decades for this moment.
The Timberwolves are 32-11 at home this season, including the postseason, for a reason. Minnesota nice? Not when it comes to their basketball team.
Besides that bubble playoff, Denver has never erased a two-game series deficit during now three-time MVP Nikola Jokic’s career (0-3).
The Nuggets, with Jokic, have never beaten a 50-win team in the playoffs. They played a play-in team, the Miami Heat (44-38 in regular season), in last season’s NBA Finals.
Minnesota, meanwhile, finished this regular season 56-26. The Nuggets must accomplish a first, with a banged-up Jamal Murray, after already surrendering homecourt advantage.
This is the 30th anniversary of the 1994 Nuggets overcoming a 2-0 deficit to shock the Seattle SuperSonics. But that was a five-game series, with the third and fourth games in Denver. This Nuggets team must win on the road after dropping back-to-back home games for the second time all season.
With a three-day break between games, the Nuggets will have their chance to scheme up a different game plan. Murray will also have the chance to get healthier after his 3-for-18 shooting performance in Game 2.
The NBA has not had a repeat champion over the past five years, the longest stretch since 1980. The 1994 Houston Rockets are the only champion to win a series after losing the first two games at home.
The Nuggets won the trophy last season, but we’ll really find out what this group is really made of this postseason.
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