NBA: Nuggets, amid tight battle for top-4 seed, bring hot form to Phoenix

Once neck-and-neck for a playoff spot, the Denver Nuggets and host Phoenix Suns will be on opposite sides of the play-in divide when they meet Tuesday.

The Nuggets (44-28) have won five of their last seven games, including a 128-112 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday. Meanwhile, the Suns (40-32) ended a five-game losing streak with a 120-98 win over the Toronto Raptors earlier that day.

Denver is tied with the Minnesota Timberwolves (44-28) for fourth place in the Western Conference, just a half-game ahead of the Houston Rockets (43-28). Denver, Minnesota, and Houston remain in contention to challenge the current third seed, the Los Angeles Lakers (46-26). The top four teams earn home-court advantage in the first playoff round.

“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, after scoring 19 points against the Trail Blazers.

The Suns appear locked into the No. 7 seed with 10 games remaining. Teams seeded seven through ten must fight for playoff spots 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.”

Booker scored 25 points against Toronto as the Suns played without starters Dillon Brooks (hand), Mark Williams (foot), and Royce O’Neale (knee), as well as top bench scorer Grayson Allen (knee). Phoenix led by 18 points at halftime and extended that to 30 late in the third quarter, allowing coach Jordan Ott to rest Booker in the fourth after he tweaked his right ankle in a 101-100 loss at San Antonio on March 19.

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

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

Collin Gillespie contributed 16 points and made four of the Suns’ 18 three-pointers on Sunday. Reserves Ryan Dunn and Rasheer Fleming combined for 23 points, 10 rebounds, and five steals.

On the Nuggets’ side, Nikola Jokic recorded his 28th triple-double of the season by the end of the third quarter against Portland, finishing with 22 points, 14 rebounds, and 14 assists. Denver got a boost with the return of wing Peyton Watson, who missed six weeks with a right hamstring injury. Watson scored 14 points with six rebounds and three assists in 20 minutes off the bench.

“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.”

Denver held Portland to 43 points in the second half, with Jokic attributing the improvement to stronger defensive intensity.

“We need to use fouls and be aggressive and test the officials,” Jokic said. “When we started playing like that in the second half, we were playing much better.”

-Field Level Media/Reuters