...the Nuggets will win the championship this year.

The Lakers are great but they're not a better team than last year, and it's much harder to win back-to-back championships than it is to get the first one.  The Nuggets were almost good enough last year and they're remarkably better this season.  They've lacked focus against sub-.500 teams but I don't remember a Nuggets team that hammered the NBA's elite so routinely.  As long as they can have everybody on the floor for the Playoffs, they'll defeat the Lakers and trounce whomever emerges from the East.  I know what championship teams look like and the Nuggets are that good.

 

Also, and I hope this isn't messed up to say, but I was impressed at how unified they looked during Coach Karl's cancer press conference.  They seem unified, and everybody else better take notice.  Now more than ever, the Nuggets are for real, and I'm not even afraid of jinxing it.  I've never seen a Nuggets team near this good.  It's beautiful.