A bit more than halfway through the season, the Denver Nuggets are just on the fringes of landing the playoffs this season right now. With a 20-17 record, Denver is currently slotted for the eight seed in the Western Conference, but they're only 1.5 games ahead of Minnesota and two games ahead of Portland.
After the Western Conference's top two teams, the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs, the rest of the contenders are tightly packed in the standings. While the Nuggets aren't far from not even qualifying for the postseason, they're only 2.5 games behind the conference's third-place team, the Los Angeles Clippers.
Playing well in the second portion of the season will be absolutely key for Denver. While they have no shot of winning the division, finishing strong could allow them to land the No. 4 seed in the playoffs, while stumbling could potentially lead to missing the playoffs entirely.
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