How good is Denver?

I live in Colorado and the Nugs are always on TV. I try not to watch because it gets tiring rooting specifically against a team night in and night out and I kind of like them in spite of being the Blazers biggest obstacle right now.

I agree that Nene has been the key for them this season. He gives them their toughness and identity. Chauncey has been huge obviously. JR Smith has really emerged as a legit sixth man (I would say he is on about the same level as Travis, maybe better even). Carmelo is back from a months absence and is playing with a chip on his shoulder- and it is truly scary when he figures it all out. Birdman is not a joke either, even though everything he does outside of basketball would imply otherwise. I also love their ex Blazer Kleiza’s game too as well as Anthony Carter’s.

I think after they got Chauncey and started winning immediately everyone kind of expected them to fall back down to earth. But the thing is they havent. They know they can’t let up all season with Portland getting better daily, so they in turn have stepped it up a notch. They can play with the best and they know it, being 3rd in the west and having a bunch of quality wins so far.

Baring an injury free rest-of-season I would say the Blazers CAN overtake them…. But it isnt likely. However these are two injury-prone teams so who knows. But still both Portland and Denver are pretty deep….

I think anyone who follows the Nugs would be lying if they said they knew how good their team was until the first round of the playoffs is over. Whereas our team’s goal is to make the playoffs, theirs is to WIN. They are a group of battle-tested veterans and they expect to go out and win every night. Thats where the real difference lies between the two clubs, and it is what is making Denver better right now. For the stretch run I think they will be neck-and-neck with the blazers and the final game of the season when the two square off will determine the winner of the division

They were 1-3 before Chauncey arrived. Since then, they are 32-13, which would be clearly the second best in the conference. That is 71%, which over the course of a season is 58 wins. Because of the 1-3 start, they will perhaps win 56-57 games, but maybe even one or two more. It is extremely unlikely that we will beat them for the division title unless they lose some key time to injury.

I like the matchup if we face them in the playoffs, I think there is a legitimate chance to beat them. This is not the same team that has lost in the first round repeatedly, though. Billups knows how to win in the playoffs, and Nene is not the Nene of the past couple years.

They have road wins at Boston, S.A., and Dallas. They aren’t a great road team, in fact, they just aren’t great against winning teams (3-9 at home, 9-6 on the road). But they take care of business against losing teams better than anyone in the West (21-1, everyone else has lost at least 3 games to losing teams, Portland has lost 4).

Their schedule is marginally tougher than ours. We have one more home game against losing teams than they do, which should be a win. Count us as being two games behind them, instead of 2 1/2. We have the same number of games left (15) against winning teams as they do (everyone else has at least three more), but seven of those 15 for us are on the road, and 9 of their 15 are on the road. Both of us are bad at road games against winning teams (we’re 4-10, they are 3-9), so count that as an edge which is probably worth a game, possibly two games.

They have 8 back to backs left, but only five of them are on the road. We have seven left, and all seven are on the road.

They are in the middle of a 4 in 5 nights stretch, having won the first two. If Billups misses with his ankle problem and K-mart with strep throat, they could drop one or even both of those, which would improve our chances. I still think it unlikely we beat them out, but if they manage to lose both, that really puts it in a toss-up.

Some people are looking at their upcoming schedule the rest of this month, and it certainly is tougher than ours. We may have a chance to surpass them. But overall, their remaining schedule is not significantly more difficult, so if we do surpass them, that does not mean we will stay ahead of them, or be favored to win the division. If we don’t get an edge of a game or so by the end of February, I think this one is probably theirs to lose.