Denver Nuggets, amid tight battle for NBA top-four seed, bring hot form to Phoenix Suns

PHOENIX – Once neck-and-neck for a National Basketball Association (NBA) play-off seeding, the Denver Nuggets and hosts Phoenix Suns will be on different sides of the play-in divide when they meet on March 24 (March 25, Singapore time).

The Nuggets have won five of their last seven games, most recently topping the Portland Trail Blazers 128-112 on March 22, a few hours before the Suns broke a five-game losing streak by rolling past the Toronto Raptors 120-98.

Denver are tied with the Minnesota Timberwolves for fourth place in the Western Conference, a half-game ahead of the Houston Rockets. Denver, Minnesota and Houston are in position to challenge the current third seed, the Los Angeles Lakers.

“We’ve got some good teams on the schedule left in these 10 games, so these are games that we need,” said Denver’s Cameron Johnson, a former Sun.

The Suns are seemingly locked into the No. 7 seed with 10 games remaining. Teams in places seven through 10 must fight for play-off berths through the play-in tournament.

“We put ourselves in a tough position to make it to the six (seed) now,” Suns guard Devin Booker said. “I think now we just need to focus on playing the right brand of basketball, the right style of basketball.

“Learn from the past five games and continue to move forward. Whatever happens moving forward, if that is play-in, we handle that when it gets here.”

The Suns had an 18-point half-time lead over the Raptors and built that to 30 late in the third quarter, enabling coach Jordan Ott to sit Booker in the fourth quarter to rest a right ankle that he tweaked on March 19.

“It was much needed, got to sit the whole fourth quarter,” Booker added. “Tough with Denver coming next, so any rest time is good for us right now.”

Ott said of Booker: “Obviously, body is not feeling great. He’s our leader for a reason, because of what he does on a day-to-day basis.”

In the Denver camp, the Nuggets came as close to full health as they have been in months with the return of wing Peyton Watson, who missed six weeks with a right hamstring injury.

“Let’s be patient with Peyton,” Nuggets coach David Adelman said. “Peyton is not going to play 40 minutes and guard the best player every night the first week he comes back. It’s going to take some time.”

Nikola Jokic had his 28th triple-double of the season by the end of the third quarter against Portland, and he wound up with 22 points, 14 rebounds and 14 assists.

As usual, he will lead the attack but the Serb also hailed the team’s increase in defensive intensity after Denver held Portland to 43 points in the second half.

“We need to use fouls and be aggressive and test the officials,” Jokic said.

“When we started (to play) like that in the second half, we were playing much better.”

Meanwhile, Daniss Jenkins scored a career-high 30 points on March 23 as the Detroit Pistons halted the Lakers’ nine-game winning streak with a 113-110 victory.

Elsewhere, the Oklahoma City Thunder made it 12 wins in a row with a 123-103 blowout over the Philadelphia 76ers on the road.

Reigning NBA Most Valuable Player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 22 points on a night when six Thunder players finished in double figures.

The win kept Oklahoma City three games clear of the chasing San Antonio Spurs with a 57-15 record. San Antonio stayed in touch at the top of the West with a 136-111 drubbing of the Miami Heat in Florida.

Victor Wembanyama’s 26 points led the Spurs scoring. REUTERS, AFP