The Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Clippers both have over four decades of history in the NBA’s Western Conference. Yet, they have only faced each other twice in the playoffs, making the first round matchup between the two this season a proverbial rubber match of postseason proportions. The playoff series record against one another is 1-1. Each team has dealt the other a defeat when the opposition’s fanbase was sure of victory. The losses have been painful, far more so than the wins have been consequential. The history of these two teams in the postseason will grow over the next week, and one team will get the upper hand on an oft overlooked matchup.
The team the Nuggets never saw coming
In 2006 the Nuggets were fully into the Carmelo Anthony era. After two straight first round exits, Denver headed to the postseason for the third straight year with more optimism than ever. In Melo’s rookie season the franchise and their fans were simply happy to be back to relevance so quickly. The Nuggets snuck in to the playoffs as an eight seed and promptly lost in five games to the top seeded Kevin Garnett Minnesota Timberwolves. The following year expectations were slightly higher. The team had recently invested a lot of money and draft capital into Kenyon Martin and also brought in big name head coach George Karl, but Denver ran into a dynasty in their opponent: the Tim Duncan San Antonio Spurs. The Nuggets looked like they were primed for an upset with a game one win on the road, but Denver lost the next four and once again exited the first round in five games.
It was different come 2006 though, at least in the second year of the Northwest Division. After the 2003-2004 season the NBA split their conferences into three divisions instead of two. The resulting Northwest division contained three regressing teams: the Timberwolves, Portland Trail Blazers and Seattle Supersonics; a Utah Jazz team that was still waiting for the arrival of the Deron Williams/Carlos Boozer pairing and the upstart Melo era Nuggets. By ’06 Denver wasn’t at the height of their power yet, but there wasn’t any competition in the division and thus the 44 win Nuggets were crowned division champions. This triggered a quirky NBA rule at the time. The Nuggets, as division champions, were guaranteed a top four seed even though there were seven other teams in the West with records as good or better than Denver’s. Because of this, they became the four seed. However, because they had a worse record than the fifth seeded Clippers, the Nuggets did not get the benefit of the home court advantage.
Never the less, it was the first time Denver went into the postseason feeling like a favorite. This wasn’t Garnett or Duncan, it wasn’t the Kobe Bryant Los Angeles Lakers or the seven seconds or less Phoenix Suns. This was the Clippers, a possibly more forgotten franchise than the Nuggets with an equally woeful not too distant history. Their best player was Elton Brand, his sidekick was sixth man Corey Maggette, their role players were the aging Sam Cassell, the ho-hum Cuttino Mobley and Chris Kaman, a center who I can only imagine Doug Moe thought was a Stiff (Moe was an assistant in Denver at the time). This time it would be different…or so we thought.
A furious comeback effort in Game 1 fell short with Melo missing three opportunities to tie and a disastrous start to Game 2 left Denver heading home in an 0-2 hole. The Clippers starters took their turn picking apart the Nuggets. Meanwhile, Martin was feuding with Karl and that resulted in Kenyon being benched for the rest of the series. Still, you could convince yourself that all the Clippers had done was defend their homecourt. The Nuggets had their chance to get even in game three. Despite the Game 1 heartbreak, Melo for the most part looked good and he was getting help from Marcus Camby and Andre Miller, all hope was not lost.
That storyline continued through game three. Melo got twenty-four points, Camby recorded his second straight double-double and despite a barrage off the bench from Maggette, the Nuggets locked-in for the fourth quarter to get their first win of the series. Eduardo Najera took Martin’s place in the rotation as Karl went with his third different starting lineup in as many games. Things were looking up…but then, Denver crumbled in the all important Game 4.
Maggette once again killed them off the bench, and an adjustment by coach Mike Dunleavy to replace Kaman with the floor stretching Vladmir Radmonivic in the starting lineup kept Camby out of the paint, greatly reducing his effectiveness as a rim protector and rebounder. The Nuggets let the game get away from them in the second quarter and lost by fourteen. Down 3-1, they succumbed to the odds with barely a whimper. Maggette, Brand and Mobley all topped twenty points in Game 5 back in L.A. The Clippers turned on the gas after the first quarter and never looked back, stunning Nuggets fans with a yet another first round loss in five games. The Clippers went on to lose to the Suns in the next round and it would take 14 years for Denver to get their revenge…but get their revenge they did.
The team the Clippers never saw coming
2020 is by far the most unique postseason in NBA history. The Covid pandemic forced the NBA to pause the season for five months and then restart inside an infectious disease controlled bubble at Disney World. When the season was paused in March, it halted the stretch run for a season that had Denver sitting in the third seed behind the two teams from Los Angeles with just eighteen games to go. The top three seeds didn’t change over the course of a two week seeding/warm up play once teams arrived at the bubble.
Both the Lakers and Clippers were freshly made super teams with LeBron James working the back channels to get Anthony Davis traded to the Lakers while Kawhi Leonard left a franchise he just won a championship with to team up with Paul George who forced a trade from Oklahoma City. The national media was abuzz all season with the idea of an all L.A. Western Conference Finals that would see a clash of the NBA’s brightest stars. After the five month wait, it seemed destined for the two teams to meet in a hotel ballroom in Orlando…those pesky Nuggets though.
Denver made their way to the three seed in March largely on the play of Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, but they were starting to see their full plan come to fruition. They had added a versatile, defensive combo forward in Jerami Grant, Gary Harris was their 3 & D wing when he was healthy, Will Barton was the sixth man and Paul Millsap held down the four. There was something more though. As the season developed, so did the X-factor for the season and the franchise: Michael Porter Jr. Mike was technically in his rookie year after sitting out the entire season prior recovering from back surgery. The Nuggets brought him along slowly but come March he was getting 20 minutes a game pretty regularly. The stoppage just gave him more time to rest and recover. Come the bubble, Porter was a full on terror for opposing teams. Over a four game stretch in the seeding period he recorded 117 points and 50 rebounds. The Nuggets went into the postseason looking like true title contenders for the first time in decades.
…And then everything went crazy. With no home court advantage to speak of and just professional basketball players in empty gyms the shooting was off the charts. Murray had an iconic duel with Donovan Mitchell over seven games that saw the Nuggets come all the way back from a 3-1 series deficit to beat the Utah Jazz after Mike Conley missed a three at the buzzer. The Nuggets survived to advance to the second round where the super team Clippers were waiting after beating young Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks in six games.
The Clippers mopped the floor with Denver in game one, using a huge second quarter from Leonard and George to bury the Nuggets and never look back. Denver responded in game two, jumping all over L.A. from the opening tip behind Jokic & Murray and then holding onto their lead through the next three quarters. Games 3 & 4 put Denver’s back to the wall though. They got lit up by George in game three while Kawhi was sending back dunks with a single finger and then Leonard posted a 30 point near triple double in game four. Once again the Nuggets found themselves in a 3-1 hole, but this time the task felt insurmountable given the talent on the other side.
Indeed it seemed that was the case through the first half of game five. Murray was doing his best to keep Denver alive but George and Leonard were putting on the gas. With fifty seconds left in the half Marcus Morris and Paul Millsap got tangled under the basket and it became an altercation to which, as Millsap would say, Morris “started running (his) mouth.” THAT would change the entire series. A newly lit fire under them, Denver came storming back in the second half of game five behind fourteen points from Millsap and held off a barrage from Leonard to win 111-105. In Game 6 Denver once again fell way behind in the first half, trailing by sixteen at the break. Jokic carried them through a second half where the they played absolute lockdown defense. In the end the Nuggets won by thirteen.
By the time Game 7 rolled around, the momentum had entirely shifted into the Nuggets favor. After coming back once already from a 3-1 deficit, Denver was confident. Murray went into full “Playoff Jamal” mode in the first half, scoring 25 points while the Nuggets held George in check. Leonard and Montrezl Harrel kept the Clippers in it but you could tell their confidence was wavering. Kawhi and Playoff P disappeared in the second half, Murray put another 15 on the board and by the time the game was halfway through the fourth quarter it was over. The Nuggets completed their second playoff series comeback with a fifteen point Game 7 victory. Denver went on to lose to the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals and the Clippers have been waiting until this moment to have a fully healthy Kawhi for a playoff run ever since.
It’s fitting that the series between these two teams is a matchup of four and five seeds. Two teams who ended the season with identical records and tied in their head to head matchups. They’re tied in their playoff history too with each team dealing a painful loss to the other. While neither of these teams is likely to be favored to win the West if they advance, they’ll be as difficult as any opponent you can face. Regardless, we’re in for one hell of a series and who ever comes out on top will be able to tell the other that they’ve officially gone one up in the rivalry.
