With the losses of the Denver Nuggets and Houston Rockets and the victory of Oklahoma City Thunder yesterday, the seeding of the Nuggets playoffs is set. They will be the top three seed in the Western Conference for the 2020 NBA playoffs. Their opponent is also determined, the sixth-seeded Utah Jazz. This will not be the first time these division rivals have met in the playoffs and the history between the two teams is remarkable.
First and foremost, they are truly division rivals. In fact, until recent years, Utah has probably been the first name to roll off a Nuggets fan’s tongue when considering rivals. They are Denver’s closest opponent in terms of geographic proximity that has kept the two teams in their entire NBA history, despite re-establishment in 2004. Since Denver moved from the ABA to the NBA, Utah has been one of its closest enemies. has been, and that has led to a lot of heated regular season games, as well as a handful of playoff meetings.
The two teams have in fact met four times in the post season, two of which were fiercely competitive and two not so much. Unfortunately for Nuggets fans, Denver is just 1-3 in those matters. The most time the teams met was in the first round in 1984. The seventh seeded Nuggets were led by the trio of Alex English, Kiki Vandeweghe and Dan Issel, while the second seeded Jazz had a good round that was hijacked. by scoring dynamo Adrian Dantley. After losing Game One in Salt Lake, Denver would actually jump on Utah early in Game 2 and blow up the Jazz at their home base behind 30+ point performances from each of their “big three.” They followed it up with a narrow win back in the friendly confines of McNichols Arena and appeared to be on the lookout for the turnout (remember, first-round series were the best of five, not seven, in those days ). Unfortunately, Dantley played his best game of the series in game four, putting the Nuggets late on their homeless away and forcing a decisive game five back in Utah. The Nuggets gave up 41 points in the first quarter of game five before making a comeback in the second half, but did not have the energy to keep it up in the fourth quarter. Utah won by sixteen and Dantley led the franchise to its first playoff series victory.
It would not take long for the Nuggets to get revenge. They drew one of the largest and most impressive trades in their history over the summer when they sent Vandeweghe to the Portland Trail Blazers and in exchange for pieces including Fat Lever and Calvin Natt. After setting a 52-30 record in the regular season, Denver crowned the Midwest Division champions and emerged as the second seed in the West. After a furious five-series series that ended book by Nuggets outbursts against the San Antonio Spurs, Denver took sixth-seeded Utah in the Semis of the Western Conference. The Jazz never stood a chance. English was unstoppable, Natt filled the role of the threat of the second score with Issel fading and until he was hurt in the declining minutes of game 3 Lever averaged a triple double. The Nuggets have completed a sweep of Utah gentlemen, and sent them off summarily in five games.
It would take almost a decade before the two teams reunited in the postseason. The 1994 playoffs by Denver are one of the most memorable and iconic moments in franchise history. The Nuggets shocked the world by becoming the eighth seed to ever hit a seed in the first round. What’s less memorable is that the Nuggets almost made history again when they had the chance to become the first team to win a series after falling three games to none. That happened in the Semis of the Western Conference when Denver met the John Stockton / Karl Malone / Jeff Hornacek Jazz. Denver was the upstart young team with a bright future ahead of them. They were led by sharp shooter Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, defensive line Dikembe Mutombo and dynamic forward Laphonso Ellis. Although the team was young, they were deep and talented. However, the Jazz were on their way to becoming an NBA powerhouse behind Malone and Stockton.
The Nuggets fell behind early in Game 1, fell apart late in Game 2 and suffered a heartbreaking, buzzer that beat Hornacek’s in overtime on their home turf in Game 3. It had all the makings of a short series, to ‘ t the Nuggets just had no answer for Malone … and then something magical happened. Denver finally got the hang of The Mailman in Game 4 and won a grind the out thriller despite a hard-hitting nightmare from Abdul-Rauf. They went on to shock Utah on their home floor in Game 5 in what is, in my opinion, one of the greatest basketball games ever played. It took two hours, Malone and Ellis both folded out, but Denver was able to roll behind Abdul-Rauf and the great bench duo of Brian Williams (aka Bison Dele) and Robert Pack to get the win. The Nuggets finished out with Game 6 in the fourth quarter and put the all-deciding game on 7. Unfortunately, whether it was gas dissolving or just delayed, Denver could not shake the world twice. Ellis had dominated his worst playoff game, Malone dominating and a run in the third quarter by the Jazz put the nail in the coffin and finished one of, if not, the most memorable playoff runs in Nuggets history. .
Again, it would take a while for Denver to face its divisional enemy in the offseason, sixteen years to be exact. The 2009-2010 Nuggets were one of the best teams in the NBA. They came off a run of the Western Conference Finals in ’09 and were again locked in the two seed for most of the season. Unfortunately, in true NuggLife fashion, coach George Karl was diagnosed with throat cancer in February and the Nuggets tumbled to the four seed when the playoffs began. Karl tried to make a return to the bank, but the tax the cancer and subsequent treatments placed on his body made it impossible. Despite (ironically) Adrian Dantley coaching his way through Coaching, they still had the star duo of Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups and there was little concern about defeating the fifth seeded Jazz in the first round. That was evident from foolish confidence.
The Jazz were led by Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer when those two boys were aware of their careers. Although they were without the criminally underrated Andrei Kirilenko, they still had a strong bank that included a young Paul Millsap and Kyle Korver. The series started well enough with the Nuggets removing the Jazz in the fourth quarter of Game 1 behind an enormous game from Melo and a classic JR Smith scoring outburst, but it soon disappeared. Melo and Chauncey (especially Melo) did everything they could, but received almost no help from anyone on the roster in the following games. Meanwhile, Williams was unstoppable, regularly refurbished monster double doubles. The Nuggets lost three straight and found themselves back at the Pepsi Center after three games to one. Their bench and role players eventually stepped up in Game 5 in what was the most complete game by the Nuggets in the series to force a Game Six back in Utah, but unfortunately they had no answer for Boozer, who scored a 20/20 game noted. If it had not been for Joey Graham (you read that right), the game would have been an early blowout. Finally, Utah used a run behind Millsap and Wesley Matthews in the fourth quarter to seal the deal.
That was the last time these two teams played each other in the postseason. That series was also probably the most impactful for Denver of any of the four they play against Utah. Disappointed with yet another exit from the first round, especially one where they were favored, Melo forced his next season out of Denver and changed the course of the franchise history. Although there have been no matchups after the season in the decade, there was a lot of fodder between the two teams. Utah fans pointed out that Denver gifted their two stars, Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell, in running day trade, even though the Nuggets had no intention of making up either player. The teams play four more games per season against each other and account for three of the past championships for four divisions.
The fact remains that Utah has the better of Denver three of the four times in the mail season. It’s high time that that changed. After SLC Dunk called on the Nuggets to set up a game last season, which meant the Jazz had to play the Houston Rockets in the first round, Utah deliberately appeared to drop games in the bubble this season to end a matchup with the Setting up nuggets. Likewise, Denver eventually rested late in three of the seven seeding games they played in what appears to be also attempts to set up this matchup. It looks like both of these teams will get what they want … but only Denver would want it. The Nuggets sweep the regular season series with the Jazz, Gobert has been very ineffective in beating Nikola Jokic himself (Joker even dropped a 30/20/10 game on him) and one of the Utah thorns in Denver’s side, Bojan Bogdanovic , will not be available. There’s also the question of who will stop Michael Porter Jr. on the Utah side. If the game last week was any indication, Royce O’neale and Joe Ingles are not. It’s high time for some buybacks in my estimation. Nuggets in 5.
