On Tuesday, the Denver Nuggets seemingly wrapped up the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference. While they didn’t technically clinch with their seismic victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves, they took care of by far their hardest remaining opponent and gave themselves a one-game lead in the standings over both the Timberwolves and the Oklahoma City Thunder. Surely the defending champs would take care of business in their last two games against the Spurs and Grizzlies… right?
Well… that’s not how it played out on Friday. The Nuggets controlled most of their battle with Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs. They led by 13 entering the final frame. And then, after spending the entire season toying with opponents in the clutch, they were outscored 11-2 in the final three-and-a-half minutes to fall, 121-120. A Devonte’ Graham runner with less than one second remaining gave the Spurs the win.
That threw the Western Conference into a state of turmoil.
With 81 games down and just one remaining, the Thunder, Timberwolves and Nuggets all share identical 56-25 records. The NBA has never seen a three-way tie for a No. 1 seed. We very easily could have one this season. On Sunday, the Nuggets will play the Grizzlies in Memphis, the Timberwolves will host the Suns in Minneapolis, and the Thunder will host the Mavericks in Dallas. All three games start at the same time. If all three favorites either win or lose, we have a three-way tie for the No. 1 seed.
So now, we answer the million-dollar question: what happens in all of these possible tiebreaker scenarios? Well… there are a total of seven that we need to address. Let’s break it down.
If the Thunder, Nuggets and Timberwolves all either win or lose on Sunday, the Thunder would be the No. 1 seed in the West, the Timberwolves would be the No. 2 seed and the Nuggets would be the No. 3 seed. The first tie that needs to be settled in any scenario is by division. All three of our teams here happen to share the Northwest Division. In a three-way divisional tie, the winner is determined through…..
