Round 2 Preview: Nuggets Head To Phoenix For Game 3

The Nuggets are the best in the West, there's no doubt about it. After all they made it to the top of the western conference with ease, but fumbled towards the end of the season, losing many consecutive games and missing several important players, including Nikola, due to injuries. Luckily for them, Denver was able to pick back up with their pace and managed to beat the T-wolves in 5.

Unluckily, they landed on the Suns who happen to be one of the teams most likely to win the championship this season, at least according to popular opinion. Most of that happened after acquiring Kevin Durant from the Nets, which propelled the Suns from 6th to 4th place in the western conference ladder. The thing is that KD only played a handful of games after joining Phoenix, largely due to an ankle injury. Meaning the reason why they were doing so well was because of Devin Booker, which is not talked about enough. Devin Booker is an elite scorer in this league and has shown he could lead a team to not only a 60+ win team, but also the NBA Finals, which he lost to the Bucks but that's not important now.

That's the big differentiator between these teams, the Suns have lots of playoffs experience, with most of the team making it to the finals in 2021, and others like KD just having been a dominant force in the finals at some point or another. Compared to the Nuggets, none of these players have ever made the Finals. The closest they ever got to it was in the Bubble, as they faced the Lakers in the Conference finals, but lost in only 5 games.

Now a bigger, more dominant, high scoring and perimeter defending team with lots of chemistry, the Nuggets are one to watch out for in these playoffs. This is like their time to shine after so many years of playoff contention that led to eliminations. This is their time to shine. There is no doubt the upcoming games 3 and 4 will be tough since they will take place in Phoenix, but seeing how productive the Joker is, if he can continue to give 5+ assists, recording 15 ish rebounds and putting up efficient buckets, he might be able to pull the Nuggets to the conference finals again.