Nuggets Win 8 Straight, Closing in on Lakers for the 3 Seed

The Nuggets are coming for that 3 seed and the Lakers can't do anything about it.

Denver has won eight straight games heading into the final week of the regular season. Nikola Jokic put up 40/8 in a 136-134 win over San Antonio on Friday and the team shows zero signs of slowing down. They're 49-28, just one game behind the Lakers (50-27) — and they hold the head-to-head tiebreaker.

Do the math: the Lakers just lost Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves for the rest of the regular season. They have five games left with a roster held together by duct tape. Denver has four games left and is playing the best basketball in the Western Conference right now.

If the Nuggets grab the 3 seed, it reshuffles the entire West bracket. Instead of OKC potentially seeing Denver in Round 2, the Thunder could draw a hobbled Lakers team. And a healthy Jokic-led Nuggets squad in the 3 slot is nobody's idea of an easy matchup.