With 15 wins and 3 losses, the NBA hegemony has finally exposed its shortcomings! The situation that the league is looking forward to will gradually become a reality

This season's NBA regular season has entered the final stage, and the teams still have 9-10 games left, the Celtics are first in the East, the Bucks are second, and the situation of other teams competing for third is basically determined, but on the West side, from the first Nuggets to the eleventh Rockets, there are great variables. To be precise, the Nuggets + Timberwolves + Thunder are the first phalanx, the Clippers + Pelicans + Mavericks + Suns + Kings are the second group, the Lakers are trying to close the gap, and the Warriors behind them are bitten by the Rockets. At this stage, the Celtics have started the rotation rest plan, so is there any team in the West that dares to do this? In fact, the Timberwolves and Thunder, two young teams, have risen this season with a perfect roster framework and top-level defensive ability, but the playoffs may not be feasible, and lack of experience is fatal.

Start with a set of data. According to the statistics of the American media, since February, the performance of the teams in the West, the Nuggets have 18 wins and 6 losses, the Lakers + Mavericks + Thunder + Pelicans four teams, with a record of 17 wins and 7 losses, and the Timberwolves 16 wins and 8 losses, which can only rank sixth. To put it simply, even the Lakers and Warriors in the play-off range, by the end of the season, there are James and Curry, including the Rockets outside the play-offs, and Jalen Green, the Rockets have not entered the top ten in 10 consecutive wins, the Lakers are 17-7, and they are still hovering in ninth place, and the competition in the West is indeed fierce. However, one team has begun to secretly play big chess and plan the overall trend of the entire Western region! With 15 wins and 3 losses, the NBA hegemony has finally exposed its shortcomings! The situation that the league is looking forward to will gradually become a reality.

The Nuggets went 16-4 in the playoffs last season, and only the Suns pushed them into Game 6 of the series, and other teams, including the Lakers, struggled to put pressure on them. To put it bluntly, the Nuggets have been making multiple choice questions for opponents: you wrap Jokic, the Nuggets have Gordon's air cut, Porter + Pope's projection, and Murray's offense attracts firepower; After the All-Star break, the Nuggets had a 15-3 record, one was killed by Irving's throwing, and the other two were lost to the Suns: one was a 10-point loss in overtime, and the other was not until overtime, and the Suns won the game in the fourth quarter. As the Nuggets team reporter said, the Nuggets are not afraid of the Lakers, nor are they afraid of the Warriors or the Clippers, but every time they meet the Suns, they are not easy to play.

It was precisely the Suns that allowed the Nuggets to expose the team's shortcomings. The Suns' double-backcourt supergiant + forward Durant has no difference in singles ability, the defensive end is a great test for Jokic, the Nuggets only have Pope and Porter two who do the dirty work, but the Suns have three stars who stand up and play singles. In addition, when the Nuggets have only one person in Jokic or Murray, as long as the Suns implement a pinch-and-shoot strategy, it is difficult for the rest of the Nuggets to have a stable projection. I remember that in the summer when the Suns reached the Finals in '21, Jokic was trained by Booker to be mentally unbalanced. In addition, the Nuggets won 51 of the first 73 games of the season, and the starting five contributed nearly 46 wins, and the bench is really unavailable. In the playoffs, it will be difficult to count on Reggie + Strauser + Watson to support for 15-20 minutes!

Another detail is that the Nuggets had at least three tops in the West before the All-Star Weekend, only to lose in key games. The most impressive thing was the 26-point defeat to the Thunder at home at the end of December, and there was no desire to win at all. Coach Malone, who has been a master of Western Conference trading in the past few years, and the Nuggets were also No. 1 in the West last season, but reluctantly, he paddled almost the entire month of March. And what is the best way for the Nuggets to defend their title this season? If they force themselves to be the first in the West, they may meet the nemesis Sun, and they may meet the Los Angeles duo "gift package" team, the Clippers are likely to be fourth, and the Lakers and Suns are almost a foregone conclusion that they will fight for eighth, because the Suns have a difficult schedule, and the Lakers can't beat the nemesis king.

The most interesting thing is here: when the Thunder lost to the Rockets, coinciding with the Timberwolves' three consecutive wins to move to second, the Nuggets unexpectedly lost to the Suns, but the Nuggets played one more game, with a difference of 0.5 games, and if they are all played in the end, the Nuggets' divisional record including the relationship between victory and defeat is still inferior to the Timberwolves and Thunder. According to the probability calculation given by the American media "BR", the probability of the Nuggets falling to third in the West is the highest: 35.8%, the probability of the Thunder being second is the highest: 33.6%, and the probability of the Timberwolves being first is the highest: 39.3%. To put it simply, no matter how the Nuggets rank the two teams in front of them, because of the relationship between victory and defeat, the Nuggets can get stuck in a line: if they are not the first, there is a high probability that they will not meet the Suns, and they may not be able to meet the Los Angeles gift package before the Western Conference finals.

In fact, if the Nuggets play the role of a Western Conference championship giant, it may not be what the league wants to see. The ratings of last season's Finals are the best illustration of this, but teams like the Suns, Lakers, including the Clippers, play other teams, and their experience is the biggest bargaining chip. No matter how tossed the Timberwolves and Thunder in the regular season, the playoffs must first learn to pay tuition. The best way for the Nuggets is to avoid their edge, in the range of 2+3+6+7, the league doesn't want the traffic team to be out early, and the Nuggets can go the farthest at the lowest cost, but the Thunder and Timberwolves are likely to become victims.