It’s pretty simple — the Nuggets’ playoff fate will be decided on the road.
The Nuggets have 19 regular-season games remaining, with 13 of those away from the Pepsi Center. The travel begins tonight at Utah, a contest that kicks off a seven-game road swing mixing Western and Eastern Conference teams.
Some numbers of note:
• The Nuggets are 11-9 on the road, one of only three teams in the Western Conference with a winning road record.
• The Nuggets are 12-1 against Eastern Conference teams; they play four East teams on the trip.
• The Nuggets are 14-20 against Western Conference teams; they face three West teams on this trip.
Denver (26-21) found out Thursday it will have to make the run without reserve Rudy Fernandez. The guard needs surgery on his lower back and will miss the rest of the season.
The Nuggets are nearly as close to the third spot in the playoff race as they are to the 12th spot — fragile ground, indeed. This means any significant slip-up on this trip could be costly in an airtight Western Conference playoff picture.
The Nuggets finished a 5-4 homestand with a win over Detroit on Wednesday night. Coach George Karl walked away pleased.
“I think we got enough wins to be in a good place,” Karl said. “Basically, when I looked at the schedule, I saw this road trip and I said, ‘We’re going to have to win three or four of those games.’ I said that in December, and I think it’s basically the same game plan. For us to get into a good April position, we’ve got to go out and win three or four of these.”
The Nuggets are playing three of the teams — Chicago, Orlando and Charlotte — for the first time this season. Denver is a combined 5-2 against Utah, Minnesota, Toronto and New Orleans.
Games against Utah, in which the series is 1-1, and Minnesota, in which the Nuggets lead the series 1-0, have if-needed tiebreaker implications for the playoff seeding or qualification purposes.
The Nuggets’ inconsistency at home this season has some on the team eager to take their act on the road.
“We’ve had an off-and-on, win-loss thing going on for these nine games (at home),” guard Arron Afflalo said. “We have to learn from some of those things that caused us to lose some close ballgames at home and hopefully take it on the road, where honestly I think our focus has been a little bit tighter, this season in particular. We need to take advantage of every game we’re playing on the road.”
The Nuggets are 12-16 since starting the season 14-5. Karl, however, saw rays of hope for his team in its win over Detroit.
“I saw a lot of good basketball throughout the game,” he said. “I think the team made the step of figuring ‘if we do this, if we do that, we can be a pretty good basketball team, even without (injured players Danilo Gallinari) and Rudy (Fernandez).’ “
Fernandez had missed 12 games this season because of a lower-back strain. He had been averaging 8.6 points. No date is set for the surgery.
The win over Detroit, both Karl and his players say, is a good way to hit the road.
“It’s definitely a boost, because we’re going on a long road trip,” center JaVale McGee said. “We’ve just got to win and start a streak.”
Christopher Dempsey: 303-954-1279 or cdempsey@denverpost.com
DENVER AT UTAH
8:30 p.m. tonight, ALT/ESPN, 950 AM/103.1 FM
Spotlight on Gordon Hayward: The second-year forward has improved almost across the board from his rookie season. His scoring average is up nearly five points and his rebounds, assists and free-throw percentages are up as well. He enters tonight’s game as Utah’s fourth-leading scorer at 10 points per game.
NOTEBOOK
Nuggets: Denver will be without Danilo Gallinari (thumb) and Rudy Fernandez (back). Center Kosta Koufos (knee) remains questionable. … The Nuggets did not practice Thursday, choosing to give the team the day off in advance of a stretch of three games in four days.
Jazz: This is the second in a road/home back-to-back set of games for the Jazz, which played at Sacramento on Thursday night. … Utah is 5-0 at home in March, with wins over Miami and Oklahoma City included in the span.
Christopher Dempsey, The Denver Post
