Basketball Is Almost Back: Denver Nuggets 2018 Schedule Released
By Ryan Palmer
The Denver Nuggets play 13 back-to-back games this season.
The good news is that this is down from 14 back-to-backs in the 2017-2018 Denver Nuggets season. The bad news is that the Nuggets split those back-to-back games 9 out of the 14 times last year, 2 of the 14 back-to-backs the Nuggets won both games and 3 of the 14 times the Nuggets lost both games.
The Nuggets need to capitalize on the reduced back-to-backs. Cutting out 2 of those double lose back-to-backs last year would have meant a trip to the playoff for the Denver Nuggets. If the Nuggets convert some of those 4 now spread out games into the W column then this will help overall.
With the reduction of total back-to-backs also comes the fact that they are spread out throughout the season. There is a five game stretch with two back-to-back games that include only two days of rest. That will be difficult and there are two back-to-backs in the first 10 games of the season that will be important but the rest have pretty ample rest and time between them. The only other instance of concern is the final two games of the season. If this season comes down to another playoff race in the last few game then these are going to be tough ones.
The back-to-back games that I worry the Nuggets will drop both games are the ones where a hard game is on day one. The games January 7th and 8th against Houston and Miami look like it could be 2 losses. The February 1st and 2nd matches against Houston and Miami are concerning. The March 28th and March 29th games against Houston and Oklahoma City could be challenging. The April 2nd & 3rd games look like almost a guaranteed double L, but this could be overstated depending on what the Spurs end up doing this year.
3-of the-4 times the Nuggets meet the 2017-2018 regular season winning Houston Rockets will be in back-to-back games. Luckily for the Nuggets they play them the first game of all three back-to-backs. If the Nuggets can find ways to defeat the Rockets in the first matchup and still leave some reserves for the next day they should be able to defeat the Miami Heat. The other 2 Houston matchups are going to be tough and the Nuggets need to find ways to beat the Rockets and not worry about the second match up in my opinion.
The Nuggets should be able to improve on their back-to-back record from last year overall. Splitting the games is fine. Dropping both games in a back-to-back is something the Denver Nuggets must avoid at all costs. If Denver can somehow find a way win both games of back-to-backs multiple times this season they should be in a great position.