The Miami Heat winning 23 in a row is a great story. The Heat are potentially on a crash course with history/destiny and could be dubbed one of the three best teams to ever be on the hard wood of an NBA court. The 96 Bulls are probably the greatest team to ever hit the floor. 72 Lakers probably the second best team and the 96 Sonics, unbiasedly mind you, are probably one of the ten best teams ever.
Okay, maybe there is some homerism there.
While there are Heat, there are the Denver Nuggets out west quietly rolling up 13 straight wins and defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder tonight in OKC by ten.
Denver is only three and a half games behind OKC for the Northwest Division lead and potentially the number two seed in the west and if things break right, the number overall seed out west. Stranger things have happened, not willing to rule it out yet.
Would that not be a complete nightmare for the NBA? You build up to a potential Thunder-Heat Finals rematch for a year and then here comes George Karl, 37-year-old Andre Miller and company.
Three and a half games is going to be hard to make up over the final 13 games though. Oklahoma City sees five playoff teams the rest of the season, Denver sees only three teams. They are going to have to play the San Antonio Spurs twice during that span.
Denver | Oklahoma City |
Mar. 21 Philadelphia Mar. 23 Sacramento Mar. 25 at New Orleans Mar. 27 at San Antonio Mar. 29 Brooklyn Apr. 2 at Utah Apr. 4 Dallas Apr. 6 Houston Apr. 10 San Antonio Apr. 12 at Dallas Apr. 14 Portland Apr. 15 at Milwaukee Apr. 17 Phoenix |
Mar. 20 at Memphis Mar. 22 at Orlando Mar. 24 Portland Mar. 27 Washington Mar. 29 at Minnesota Mar. 30 at Milwaukee Apr. 4 San Antonio Apr. 5 at Indiana Apr. 7 New York Apr. 9 at Utah Apr. 11 at Golden State Apr. 12 at Portland Apr. 15 Sacramento Apr. 17 Milwaukee |
If the Nuggets can split with San Antonio and take care of business the rest of the way there is no reason why the Nuggets cannot catch the Thunder and win the Northwest Division. They have less games, zero back-to-backs (OKC has three) and potentially less resistance.
It might be a little late and they’re terrible start to the year could have doomed them, but there is a chance. There is definitely a chance.