/turns off exaggeration machine
Although this has been brought up a good deal of times, the Nuggets and the Mavericks are tied in the race for the second seed. It is worth noticing, however, that the Mavericks have an easier end-of-season schedule than the Nuggets. According to Hollinger's Power Rankings over on ESPN, the Nuggets and the Mavericks have had similarly dificult schedules so far, but the Mavericks have the easier finishing stretch. They only have two back-to-backs, while we have four. Both teams have 7 home games and 7 road games remaining, but the Mavericks' don't really have any roadtrips left, while we have a five-game road trip coming up that includes 4 playoff teams: Boston, Orlando, Dallas, and the Craptors Raptors. Here are the Mavericks' schedule and the Nuggets' schedule, with the
Mavericks' one being first.
To the jump!
| Upcoming Games | |||||
| March | Opponent | Time | Local TV | Nat TV | Radio |
| Sat 20 | vs Boston 
|
8:00pm | KTXA | 
|
KESN / KFLC |
| Mon 22 | @ New Orleans | 7:00pm | KTXA | 
|
KESN / KFLC |
| Tue 23 | vs LA Clippers
|
7:30pm | FSNSW |
|
KESN / KFLC |
| Thu 25 | @ Portland | 9:30pm | 
|
KESN / KFLC | |
| Sat 27 | @ Golden State | 9:30pm | KTXA |
|
KESN / KFLC |
| Mon 29 | vs Denver
|
7:30pm | KTXA |
|
KESN / KFLC |
| Wed 31 | @ Memphis | 7:00pm | FSNSW |
|
KESN / KFLC |
| April | Opponent | Time | Local TV | Nat TV | Radio |
| Thu 01 | vs Orlando
|
7:00pm |
|
KESN / KFLC | |
| Sat 03 | vs Oklahoma City
|
7:30pm | FSNSW |
|
KESN / KFLC |
| Wed 07 | vs Memphis
|
7:30pm | KTXA |
|
KESN / KFLC |
| Fri 09 | @ Portland | 9:00pm | FSNSW |
|
KESN / KFLC |
| Sat 10 | @ Sacramento | 9:00pm | FSNSW |
|
KESN / KFLC |
| Mon 12 | @ LA Clippers | 9:30pm | KTXA |
|
KESN / KFLC |
| Wed 14 | vs San Antonio
|
7:00pm | FSNSW |
|
KESN / KFLC |
That was the Mavs' schedule. Easy as cheese, right? (Don't open the link, Thursty)
Here's the Nuggets' schedule. What a bummer...
| March | Opponent | Time | Local TV | Nat TV | Radio |
| Thu 18 | vs New Orleans 
|
7:30pm | Altitude |
|
KCKK AM 1510 |
| Sat 20 | vs Milwaukee
|
7:00pm | Altitude |
|
KCKK AM 1510 |
| Tue 23 | @ New York | 5:30pm | Altitude |
|
KCKK AM 1510 |
| Wed 24 | @ Boston | 5:00pm | Altitude2 | 
|
KCKK AM 1510 |
| Fri 26 | @ Toronto | 5:00pm | Altitude |
|
KCKK AM 1510 |
| Sun 28 | @ Orlando | 4:00pm | Altitude |
|
KKHI 101.9 FM |
| Mon 29 | @ Dallas | 6:30pm | Altitude |
|
KCKK AM 1510 |
| April | Opponent | Time | Local TV | Nat TV | Radio |
| Thu 01 | vs Portland
|
8:30pm |
|
KCKK AM 1510 | |
| Sat 03 | vs LA Clippers
|
7:00pm | Altitude |
|
KCKK AM 1510 |
| Wed 07 | @ Oklahoma City | 6:00pm | Altitude2 |
|
KKHI 101.9 FM |
| Thu 08 | vs LA Lakers
|
8:30pm |
|
KCKK AM 1510 | |
| Sat 10 | vs San Antonio
|
7:00pm | Altitude |
|
KCKK AM 1510 |
| Mon 12 | vs Memphis
|
7:00pm | Altitude |
|
KCKK AM 1510 |
| Tue 13 | @ Phoenix | 8:30pm | Altitude |
|
KCKK AM 1510 |
By my count, that's 10 games against playoff teams, The Mavs only have 7, and 5 of them are at home.
I'm going to predict the result of each of the games for both teams while being as impartial as possible. I know that I haven't added enough pictures yet, but I'll do that later on when I have more time.
Let's start with the Mavs!
Saturday, March 20 vs. Boston: Win
Monday, March 22 at New Orleans: Win
Tuesday, March 23 vs. The Crappy LA Team: Win
Thursday, March 25 at Portland: Loss, because the Rose Garden is a hard place to play
Saturday, March 27 at Golden State: Blowout win
Monday, March 29 vs. Denver: Overtime loss
Wednesday, March 31 at Memphis: Win
Thursday, April 1 vs. Orlando: Loss
Saturday, April 3 vs. OKC: Loss
Tuesday, April 7 vs. Memphis: Win
Friday, April 9 at Portland: Win
Last three games of the season against SacTown, The Crappy LA Team, and the Spurs: Win, Win, Win.
That adds up to a 10-4 closing stretch for the Mavericks, which puts them at 56-26
Let's go on to the Nuggets!
Thursday, March 18 vs. NOLA: Win
Saturday March 20 vs. Milwaukee: Very close win
Tuesday March 23 at New York: Win
Wednesday, March 24 at Boston: Loss
Friday March 26 at Toronto: Win
Sunday, March 28 at Orlando: Loss
Monday, March 29 at Dallas: OT Win (wishful thinking)
Thursday April 1 vs. Portland: Win
Saturday April 3 vs. The Crappy LA Team: Win
Wednesday April 7 at OKC: Loss, because they want to save energy for the next game...
Thursday April 8 vs. LA: Win. That's right.
Saturday, April 10 vs. SAntonio: Win
Monday, April 12 vs. Memphis: Win
Tuesday, April 13 at Phoenix: Definite loss.
Which leads in to my next point: The game against the Mavericks will probably decide the second seed. The Mavs definitely have the advantage, as it is at Dallas and on the second night of a back-to-back for the Nuggets but not for the Mavs. Also, we won't have Kenyon Martin on Nowitzki, and George Karl will definitely not be there. Hopefully, the Nuggets fight through adversity to post a win and thus win the tiebreaker for the second seed (here's also hoping that OKC falls to the seventh seed).
Again, I'm sorry for not including more pictures. I will when I have more time.
I have tried to add some of pictures, but they always shift to the very top of the post even when I use that small image button on the Inserts section of the FanPost-making page. Also, about a third of my post was deleted when I tried to add a picture to the end of the line, as somehow the HTML tags didn't automatically close. It also deleted all the rest of my pictures.
