DENVER (AP) — Reigning NBA MVP Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets certainly figured a recent stretch of winning 14 of 18 games would propel them in the Western Conference standings.
Or at least give them some breathing room in the postseason race.
Not the case.
What their 14-4 run did was allow them to merely tread water in the sixth spot — teetering on the brink of tumbling into the play-in scenario for the teams that finish between seventh and 10th in the conference.
“The depth of the Western Conference, I think, is incredible,” marveled Nuggets coach Michael Malone, whose team has been playing without injured standouts Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. “The West is loaded.”
The final two weeks of the regular season should provide entertaining theater as teams jockey for playoff position. With, of course, the notable exception of the Phoenix Suns, who can sit back and wait to see who they play after sewing up the top seed in the West.
Everyone else has work to do.
In…
