The NBA universe held its collective breath earlier in the week when arguably the best player in the world, Nikola Jokic, went down and limped off the floor after suffering a knee injury.
Fortunately the injury isn't catastrophic, with Jokic diagnosed with a hyperextension in his left knee which will see him miss at least the next four weeks according to ESPN's Shams Charania. Teams playing the Nuggets in the next month will directly benefit from going against what is now an injury-decimated team, but the Golden State Warriors could also be assisted later in the season.
Nikola Jokic injury could gift Warriors dream playoff matchup
Having split their two meetings earlier in the season, the Warriors and Nuggets won't face each other again until late February when Jokic will presumably be back. However, the expected drop off from Denver without their 3x MVP could have a massive say on the final standings, and therefore what the playoff picture looks like come the first-round.
The 23-10 Nuggets are currently one game back from the two-seed, but the Jokic injury could mean the San Antonio Spurs take a stranglehold on that position according to The Ringer's Bill Simmons.
“It feels like the Spurs now could get a death grip on the two seed. And I think that matters because after we get past the six and even I'm including the Lakers in the six, a team I don't even really like. But once you get in that seven, eight, nine, ten, that's going to be a relatively easy first-round series," Simmons said on a recent podcast episode.
Golden State will have ambitions of moving up from eighth to the top six of the Western Conference, particularly after building some momentum in winning five of their past six games. However, while the Warriors could soon overtake the Phoenix Suns for the seventh-seed, few analysts around the league would consider them a strong chance of overtaking a rival team in the top six.
Finishing seventh and going through the play-in again obviously wouldn't be perfect for Golden State, but a first-round matchup against the second-seed San Antonio may actually be ideal compared to facing a Jokic-led Denver squad.
What Simmons doesn't evaluate is that history is kind to the Warriors when it comes to that potential first-round matchup. It wasn't long ago that they beat the Spurs not once but twice in San Antonio, having been propelled by more brilliance from Stephen Curry.
The Spurs are also a younger team with little playoff experience. Sound familiar? The Warriors beat the three-seed Sacramento Kings in the first-round of the 2023 playoffs, while taking down the two-seed Houston Rockets in similar fashion last season. Both were talented young teams who had surged up the standings, much like what's happened with the Spurs this season.
Give Steve Kerr and the Warriors some truth serum and ask whether they'd prefer to face the Nuggets, Rockets or Spurs in the first-round of the playoffs? As impressive as the latter has been, history says they'd be the choice.