WASHINGTON — We’re just one week into December, and one thing already is apparent: You can etch in stone seven teams that will make the Western Conference playoffs.
Come on down, Memphis, Golden State, San Antonio, Portland, Houston, Dallas and the L.A. Clippers.
These teams are in.
Unless, of course, a catastrophic injury, or set of injuries, makes mere mortals of one or more of those teams.
If not? Book ’em.
And that means the Nuggets, New Orleans, Phoenix, Oklahoma City and Sacramento are in a 4½-month cage match trying to get one last spot. We’re witnessing a five-team race for the eighth seed, a mad dash to slide into that final playoff spot in what is the deepest collection of teams the Western Conference has ever seen.
Forty-nine victories got the Dallas Mavericks into the playoffs last season. This season, figure on 50 victories being necessary to get into the postseason from the West.
The Nuggets (9-10) would have to go 41-22 the rest of the season to hit that number. Oklahoma City, New Orleans, Phoenix and Sacramento would have to win from 38 to 44 games to get there.
Which of these teams has the juice to get it done?
The Nuggets bounced back after a 1-6 start to reach .500 but need to start stringing together winning streaks to have any shot at 50 victories. Until the loss at Washington on Friday night, games against the Eastern Conference had been an early boost. The Nuggets are 4-3 against the East, with wins over Cleveland and Chicago. They’ll need to raise that winning percentage against the East to have a chance.
The Nuggets also must start playing much better at home. The Nuggets are 5-4 at the Pepsi Center.
They began the season with the goal of winning their division. Do that, and not only is a playoff ticket guaranteed, so too is a top-four seed.
The reality is that only six weeks into the season, they’ve already lost the season series, and with it the tiebreaker, to Portland, which has to be viewed as the prohibitive favorite to win the Northwest Division. So Denver would have to finish with a better record than the Blazers to have a chance. That’s not including the hard-charging Thunder, which got an early return from star Kevin Durant and is now back to full strength.
The Nuggets are in the midst of a Frodo-esque journey through every obstacle imaginable to get to their Mordor: the playoffs.
And they have no Gandalf to illuminate the path.
Christopher Dempsey: cdempsey@denverpost.com or
