The Avalanche won again. The Nuggets lost again. And their enthusiasts were jobbed again.
With a 5-1 victory in Detroit against the Dreadwings on Saturday the Avs have won five games in a row. With a 116-110 defeat in New York City to the Nicks and Cuts Saturday the Nuggets have lost five of six games.
And despite a secret settlement between Altitude Sports and arch enemy Comcast Corp. in their long-lasting, stubborn lawsuit, the vast majority of hockey and basketball fans in Colorado will continue to not view the teams on cable TV.
But everybody propitiously gets to watch TCU and Gonzaga play in the second round of the NCAA tournament Sunday night in person at The Jar or on TBS.
In the Avalanche blowout over a team formerly known as legitimate in the NHL Nate MacKinnon scored three points (a goal and two assists) and has accounted for points in eight straight games (and 14 overall in March), and Cale Makar had an assist trick with three. The Avs were fourth in the Western Conference and four points from tying for the lead.
In the Nuggets beatdown at Madison Square Garden they surrendered a 13-point third-quarter advantage as the second unit disintegrated as usual and the starting five broke down in the final stretch when Nikola Jokic missed a pair of three-pointers and the other Nuggets disappeared. The Nuggets are at risk of flopping in Brooklyn on Sunday afternoon and dropping every game on this trip that is not in, yes, Detroit.
In the Nuggets-Avalanche supporters’ struggling saga of a blackout since 2019 Comcast prevailed against Stan Kroenke, although both sides obviously don’t care if the two teams appear on television in our lifetime. According to a Comcast hack the adversaries remain, ha!, “willing to discuss potential future business and distribution arrangements’’ and more gobbledygook. Altitude hacks were silent.
The loveable, laughable Rockies are between a rock and a hard place with their own television contract. Denver could be the only city in America with five major professional sports franchises (including the Broncos and the Rapids) without four of its franchises’ games available in most homes. However, most people only care about the Broncos, although they didn’t really the last six years. Why aren’t the approximately 73 mayoral candidates speaking out?
Meanwhile, back to the Nuggets, who were cruising along in late February and early March while being triumphant in seven of eight games. They had a 46-18 record, which was ahead of the Grizzlies by six games in the Western Conference, and only a half game behind the No. 1 team in the NBA and the East Conference – the Bucks with a 46-19 mark – and in front of the Celtics (45-21). The Nuggets had also possessed the runaway Most Valuable Player candidate in Jokic, had all five starters healthy, and had added two potential important role players in center Thomas Bryant and veteran guard Reggie Jackson.
The Nuggets thumped conference runnerup Memphis on March 3, and Ja Morant later visited a place of curious repute, and displayed a gun unlike the one on the sign outside.
All was right in the Nuggets’ world.
That was about the time when Michael Malone, who was a candidate himself for an award (Coach of the Year) or maybe mayor as a write-in, said, “For me, it’s like our whole focus is not being the No. 1 seed’’ in the league. He was concerned more about “playing at a high level and staying healthy’’ before the playoffs started. Those certainly were critical objectives, but one might believe that having the homecourt advantage throughout the postseason would be very important, too.
Not only have the Nuggets not played at a Mile High level since, but they also are wasting away any chance at the NBA’s top seed, and possibly even the Western Conference’s No. 1. Jokic no longer is the prohibitive MVP favorite, Malone won’t be selected the season’s superior coach, and Bryant and Jackson have turned into DiNoPs (Did Not Play).
And the Nuggets have lost this season in Philadelphia, Boston and New York – and San Antonio – and maybe in New York once more Sunday. The Bucks and the 76ers are coming to Denver in a week.
Altitude Sports won one and lost two Saturday.
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