Jerichoblaz06's Blog

Lakers  - In LA (April 3*)

Thunder - At Home (April 5*)

Mavericks  - In Dallas (April 6*)

Thunder - In Oklahoma City (April 8)

T-Wolves - At Home (April 9)

Worriers - At Home (April 11)

Jazz - In Utah (April 13)


Now if we look at this schedule more closely what do we see right off the bat? what some of you may not notice is that the next Five games for the Nuggets are in one weeks time frame. FIVE games in SEVEN nights, and only three are on their home court. That is going to be brutal on their bodies and their mental aspect of the game. But just looking alone at the first four nights are going to be a true tester of what this new team can really do down the stretch.  Those Three game consist of a flights from:
Denver to LA = 1.5 hrs
LA to Denver = 1.5 hrs
Denver to Dallas = 3 hrs
Total = 6 hrs of flight time and one day off on the 4th

Now that I personally start breaking it down into flight times, that trip doesn't sound to bad. Until you look at the schedule again to see that you only have one day off before you face the very team you're fighting home court advantage for, even though they currently hold a four game lead, you then face another hour flight. All that, and then have to fly back to Denver for a back to back adding a Four hour flight on top of it all. making that a grand total of 11 hours in the air.

I see Denver, in the case of a free fall, of those five games having to go 2-3 make it a dramatic change in the playoff seeding. But as much as we Blazer fans and analysts keep looking at our schedule, as rightfully they should, there's a bigger picture that we can clearly see in this break down of Denver's final games of the season. We may not face the Spurs, Lakers or Mavericks. Portland sits only two games behind Denver and could sweep right into that Fifth spot facing Oklahoma City in the First round, for quite possibly a third season first round exit.