Denver Stands in the Way of Lakers-Cavs Finals

With the Celtics eye-to-eye with the Bulls, and Orlando having problems with the Sixers, you might as well start buying your tickets for the Finals in Cleveland. But out West, one team just refuses to let the Lakers run away with our hearts and minds: The Denver Nuggets.↵
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↵Sure, Los Angeles took the season series 3-1, and Kobe’s gang just finished off the Jazz to advance to the next round. Their one loss came on the road, and on one of the worst nights of Bryant’s postseason career. It’s worth noting, though, that Utah was competitive in the first two games of the series. ↵
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↵Then you have the Nuggets, who last night annihilated the Hornets by 58 points, the kind of margin that should invoke the mercy rule and end the series right now. True, New Orleans did manage one win, due in large part -- like the Jazz’s win over L.A. -- to Denver making more mistakes than usual. It also required Chris Paul having a superhuman game, even by his standards. The first two were outright romps for the Nuggets, and then Monday night’s massacre. Not to say that the Hornets are much of a team this postseason, but they did make the playoffs. And the Nuggets are flat-out destroying them.↵
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↵So say we take the Lakers down a fraction of a notch, since they either weren’t quite dialed in against the Jazz, and didn’t cruise like the Cavs. Then we acknowledge that the Nuggets are a powerhouse -- against anyone in the West but the Lakers. That’s where we are after one round. It’s possible, though, that by the time the two meet in the conference finals, the gap will decrease further. ↵
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↵There’s no way the Lakers don’t remain the clear-cut number one; I’m not proposing that the Nuggets could, through more strong playoff showings, end up 1A. They could, however, certainly build anticipation for something other than Bron/Kobe. With a little more help from the Lakers, of course.↵