Since the end of the All-Star break the Denver Nuggets have won 15 of their last 17 games dominantly placing them atop of the Power Rankings.
On Monday night in Denver, the Nuggets added to the win column after defeating the Memphis Grizzlies. The Nuggets had previously defeated the Portland Trailblazers in Portland on Saturday night without both Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic.
Aaron Gordon and Reggie Jackson led all scorers with 22 and 23 while Christian Braun added 17 points. On Monday night against the Grizzlies, Braun added another 17 points to help the Nuggets defeat Memphis.
With 10 games left and the Nuggets sitting one game ahead of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Denver has their work cut out for them with teams like the Phoenix Suns, Minnesota Timberwolves, and the L.A. Clippers left on the schedule.
This week the Nuggets will have a four game home stretch that will include games against the Phoenix Suns (Wed. March, 27 @ 8 p.m.), the Minnesota Timberwolves (Fri. March, 29 @ 7 p.m.), the Cleveland Cavaliers (Sun. March 31 @ 1:30 p.m.) and the San Antonio Spurs (Tue. April 2 @ 7 p.m.).
The Nuggets have an opportunity to repeat their trip to the Finals this year and potentially have back-to-back championships if they can stay healthy and keep up the momentum heading into the post-season.
In other sports the Colorado Avalanche too are near the top of the rankings only a single point behind the Vancouver Canucks who leads the Pacific Division in the Western Conference.
The Avs celebrated a win and a four-goal comeback on Sunday night against the Pittsburgh Penguins in overtime. The Penguins jumped out to a four goal lead by the second period but Colorado’s offense finally woke up with four minutes to play in the fourth scoring their first goal courtesy of defenceman, Sean Walker. With less than a minute left in the second period Brandon Duhaime shot a rebounded puck straight down the middle to Yakov Trenin who redirected the puck for Colorado’s second goal of the game.
The Avs still down two heading into the third period came out early with a goal from Jonathan Drouin. With less than five minutes to play in regulation, Nathan MacKinnon scored the game-tying goal to send the game into overtime.
Jonathan Drouin was the star of the game with the game-winning goal in overtime to complete the four-goal deficit comeback.
The Colorado Avalanche are poised to have a high seed heading into the post-season and could still wrap up the top seed in the Western Conference.
The Colorado Rockies will kickoff the regular season in Arizona on Thursday for a four-game series with the Diamondbacks. Colorado will then head to Chicago to face the Cubs for a three-game series before heading home for their home-opener with the Tampa Bay Rays.
