Judging by the score entering the fourth quarter, one would have guessed the Rockets rested their starters.
It would have been the sensible thing to do. They were already locked in as the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference before hosting Denver on the final afternoon of the regular season. This game meant nothing to them and everything to the Nuggets.
Instead, Ime Udoka went for the kill, and the Nuggets squashed their competition anyway in a 126-111 regular-season finale Sunday at Houston. They led by 31 points after Peyton Watson’s corner 3-pointer beat the third-quarter buzzer. By then, Udoka was finally starting to call off the dogs.
The Nuggets (50-32) secured the No. 4 seed in the West with the win, and the only suspense remaining as they played out garbage time was who they would host in Game 1 of a first-round playoff series next week. It hinged on a dramatic fourth quarter — and eventually overtime — in San Francisco.
When the dust settled, it was the Los Angeles Clippers waiting for them as the fifth seed after a 124-119 win over the Warriors. If Golden State had prevailed, it would have been Nuggets vs. Timberwolves instead.
Denver went 2-2 against the Clippers (50-32) this season and will be the home team in the series because the league scheduled an extra game between the two teams in December, after both had been eliminated from the NBA Cup. That allowed the Nuggets to even the head-to-head record and eventually win the tiebreaker process, which extends to records against Western Conference opponents.
This will be the first playoff series between the Nuggets and Clippers since the 2020 bubble, when Denver erased a 3-1 series deficit in the second round.
The Nuggets completed their third consecutive 50-win season Sunday despite firing head coach Michael Malone and general manager Calvin Booth in the final week of play. They are now 3-0 under interim coach David Adelman. If they had lost in Houston, they would have ended up falling to the No. 6 seed and facing the Lakers.
Nikola Jokic finished the season at 29.6 points, 12.7 rebounds and 10.2 assists per game. He is the third player in NBA history and the first center to average a triple-double for a full season, joining Russell Westbrook and Oscar Robertson.
Nuggets point guard Jamal Murray wrapped up with a 16-point performance to average 21.4 per game, a career-high.
NBA playoff bracket
Western Conference
1) Oklahoma City Thunder vs. 8) TBD
4) Denver Nuggets vs. 5) Los Angeles Clippers
3) Los Angeles Lakers vs. 6) Minnesota Timberwolves
2) Houston Rockets vs. 7) Golden State Warriors or Memphis Grizzlies
Eastern Conference
1) Cleveland Cavaliers vs. 8) TBD
4) Indiana Pacers vs. 5) Milwaukee Bucks
3) New York Knicks vs. 6) Detroit Pistons
2) Boston Celtics vs. 7) Orlando Magic or Atlanta Hawks
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