Winners and losers from the first round of the NBA playoffs
The first round of the 2020 NBA playoffs is in the books and we’re looking at the three biggest winners and losers.
With injuries to much of the league’s stars and players changing teams last offseason, the normal stalwarts of the playoffs like the San Antonio Spurs or Golden State Warriors aren’t around for first-round playoff action. As a result, we’re seeing a changing of the guard of sorts as younger players make their playoff debuts and teams try to build something.
Let’s get into it:
Winner: The Denver Nuggets past, present, and future
The Denver Nuggets won an incredible Game 7 against the Utah Jazz, coming back in the series after being down 3-1 (just the 12th team to do that in NBA history) and their season went from a disappointing finish to a promising playoff run.
On top of that, this young Nuggets team can almost be considered Game 7 veterans with three-quarters of this era of Denver basketball’s playoff runs making it to a final win-or-go-home game. While it might suggest that they can’t get the job done, putting away their opponents early, this team is certainly curating a hard-nosed, never give up identity.
Funnily enough, many were saying this in their post-trade deadline game against who else but the Jazz on February 5 this year when they won with only seven active players after trading away several rotation players and dealing with injuries to Will Barton, Jerami Grant, Michael Porter Jr., Paul Millsap, and Mason Plumlee.
It was also a coming-out party of sorts for Jamal Murray who looked near unstoppable after Game 4. He looked like he deserved the max contract extension Tim Connelly and the front office gave him this past offseason and the two-man game of he and Jokic looks like it’ll be a playoff staple for years to come.
Nobody will blame them if they lose to title contenders in the Los Angeles Clippers, but before looking outside of the playoff picture for the team that’s ‘got next’, we should look at this young, tested team.