I used fivethirtyeight predictions for the next 8 games for all teams in the Western Conference that are fighting for the 8th seed (+OKC, just because). I would be happy to explain the details of the calculation, but what's important is the table:

As you can see, the Nuggets have a very good chance to create enough separation from Portland, Dallas and Minnesota. I tend to think that Sacramento and New Orleans are too far behind already.
As Adam Mares explained in his great piece yesterday, those next 8 games are really crucial for the Nuggets:

1)we have a 21.9% chance of having a winning record overall ( 36-33 or 35-34), which would make getting into the playoffs feel much more legitimate.

2)we have a 21.3% chance of not improving our record at all or worsening it, which means a 78.7% chance of improving that record.

3)we are, sadly, not catching OKC for the 7th seed (0.043% chance)

I do think that by March 18th, we should be ahead of the 9th place by 4 or 5 games, which should be too much for anybody to catch up. Of course, those probabilities will change as games go by, and this table might be utterly laughable in a week.

But as of now, it seems like the 8th seed is us to lose.