Basketball Is Almost Back: Denver Nuggets 2018 Schedule Released
By Ryan Palmer
The Denver Nuggets need to continue to win at home.
The Denver Nuggets have fought record low attendance at home games few years ago. It was to be expected with a team that has been rebuilding since trading away Carmelo Anthony and trying to find or develop that next player to take them to the next level. Attendance has been climbing back into pre-Melo trade levels as this team has improved. A once again robust crowd should give these Nuggets an edge at home. The nice part of our schedule is there is some consistency in the home-stands.
The Denver Nuggets have six times where they will play three or more games in a row on a court that sports the Nuggets logo in the center this season. This is absolutely advantageous as longer homestands allow for the team to get into a flow and rhythm and should result in longer win streaks.
This team was solid at home last year finishing with a home record of 31-10 . This was only bested by the Houston Rockets and the San Antonio Spurs who had records of 34-7 and 33-8 respectively. If the Denver Nuggets can end their season with a similar record at home this year it will give the Nuggets a great chance of getting into the playoffs.
Notable about the Nuggets home schedule this season are a few tough games where Denver plays a single home game between road games. The only home games this season that look extremely daunting based on the travel are October 29 versus the New Orleans Pelicans, November 27th versus the L.A. Lakers, and February 1st against the Houston Rockets.
October 29th the Nuggets will take on the New Orleans Pelicans who could be a solid team once again. The bigger concern with the Pelicans is that their home and away records last year were identical at 24-17. If this team looks anything like they did last year it will be a hard fought win for whichever team comes away with the W.
The November 27th matchup against the Lakers with newly acquired LeBron James could be an extremely hard game. It remains to be seen what the Lakers will be transformed into, but LeBron makes any team he is part of into a contender. The Nuggets will have rested for a few days after going to Oklahoma City for a November 24th game and I’m hopeful this will give the Nuggets an edge over what I predict to be a good Lakers team.
The last really tough single home game will come at the start of a tough back-to-back on February 1st against the Houston Rockets. This game will be tough as the Rockets will most likely be competing for the West and a Championship once again. This matchup should be emotionally charged with the Rockets addition of Carmelo Anthony. There is still a sore spot in Denver Nuggets fans’ minds for the once Nuggets small forward. Or at least there is a sore spot in my mind still. Now what do I do with all these Melo jerseys in my closet.
The home record needs to be strong for the Denver Nuggets again this season. The schedule looks to be relatively friendly to accomplish this task. With a similar home record Denver will only need minimal improvement on the road to get them to the playoffs.