Denver Nuggets: 3 Reasons They’ll Win the Championship

The Denver Nuggets open their first playoffs since 2013 on Saturday night. Though few believe, they have a shot at a title.

The Denver Nuggets, helmed by coach Michael Malone welcome Gregg Popovich and the San Antonio Spurs to the Pepsi Center for game 1 of the NBA playoffs.

The Nuggets are the Western Conference’s second-seed, a placement they secured on the last day of the season with a comeback win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Nuggets won just four of their final ten games but they came up with wins over the OKC Thunder and the T’Wolves when they needed to fend off the hard-charging Houston Rockets.

In the Minnesota win, it took some nifty late-game heroics from Will Barton and Jamal Murray to pull out Denver’s 34th home win, regaining the NBA lead in that category.

So, how do we get from a Denver Nuggets team that struggled to close the season to belief that this team could win a championship this year?  Well, there are a few reasons we will expand on below but part of it is the belief that this team is built precisely for where they are.  The maturity of the players is important but there are other factors that may prove more important.

We detailed here what would be the ideal scenario to play out on the NBA’s final two days but it hadn’t really sunk in how important it was.  Possibly because all of the things required seemed unlikely.

Turns out the seeding was really important: