The final weeks and, specifically, days of the NBA season always brings with it a team or two messing with the basketball Gods by trying to tank their way to a preferred match-up.
On Friday, it came from a very unexpected place. The Nuggets, who have been one of the hottest teams in the league recently, sat their entire starting lineup against the Thunder. This came after OKC listed all of Alex Caruso, Isaiah Hartenstein, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, Jalen Williams as out for the game.
While the Thunder have the top seed locked up, it was a far more puzzling decision from Denver, who entered the night just one game above the Lakers for the No. 3 seed and they did not have the tiebreaker.
Genuinely, it’s hard to figure out their rationalization. Perhaps they thought the Lakers would keep losing and they could work their way into a 4-5 match-up with LA? If they win their first round series, they’ll have to meet one of OKC or San Antonio in the second round, so maybe their focus was on that match-up and not the first round one.
Nuggets head coach David Adelman was asked pregame about the decision to sit all the starters and gave a very unconvincing argument as to them not tanking.
Whatever plans they had, though, probably didn’t include them actually winning the game on Saturday, which may have thrown a wrench in their plans if a 4-5 match-up with the Lakers was the end goal. With Houston losing to Minnesota and the Lakers throttling the Suns, neither the Nuggets or the Lakers can finish below the Rockets as both sides own the tiebreaker in that series.
So, there’s no Lakers-Nuggets playoff series coming in the first round, which is great for those fans with PTSD.
Overall, it was an odd decision for Denver with unclear intentions, but the end result is the standings looking like this heading into Sunday:
The scenario is very simple for the Lakers on Sunday. If they win and Denver loses, they jump to the No. 3 seed. If they win and Denver wins or they lose, they remain the No. 4 seed.
Against a Utah team that has been tanking since about November, it’s hard to imagine a scenario where they don’t win. Denver, meanwhile, plays the Spurs, who almost certainly rest a host of their players with their spot in the standings locked in as well.
It’s setting up a pretty drama-free ending to the season.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.
