Nuggets schedule: Predicting Denver’s entire 2025-26 season by month

As the - NBA season crawls closer the Nuggets have their roster and now they have a schedule To make sense of it and to predict Denver s win total we ve broken it down into six arbitrary chunks of about to games each See the full Nuggets schedule with championship times and TV channels here October Nov Honeymoon phase Setting the tone for an altogether choppy and inconvenient six months of trip the Nuggets will board a plane after each of their first five games They open at Golden State where the Warriors as of this week remain the only organization yet to complete an offseason move If they eventually sign Al Horford their starting lineup around Steph Curry will be formidable but also one of the grayest in the league with an average age of around That means the beginning of the season is perhaps the worst time to cross paths with them From there Denver alternates between home and away for the first week The road games aren t easy They include an early rivalry rematch at Minnesota and an NBA Cup opener at a plucky Portland crew that might not have much else to play for later this season Still this should be an energizing stretch of mile-high hoops The roster is refurbished The vibes are revamped The expectations are high And November starts with the first homestand of the season The shiny new Nuggets should be favored in all four of those games Prediction - Nov Dec NBA Cup season The Nuggets better enjoy that homestand while they can It s followed by a grueling four-week stretch of non-stop trip This is the group s flight schedule between games starting Nov inhale Denver to Sacramento to Los Angeles to Minnesota to Denver to New Orleans to Houston to Denver to Memphis to Denver to Phoenix to Denver to Indianapolis to Atlanta to Charlotte to Denver Will the Nuggets leave the oft-bruised Nikola Jokic at home to rest during any of these one-game excursions Will they put the pedal to the metal in an effort to avoid another troubling start like last year when they were - on Dec Will they be hammered by fatigue Or will their new depth buoy them After the tournament in Charlotte is an opportunity to come up for air Mid-December is now one of the lightest portions of the NBA calendar because of the in-season tournament From Dec - the Nuggets will play only two games with to-be-determined opponents unless they reach the NBA Cup final Those are impossible to predict so let s just call it a - split for the sake of impartiality First they ll face Kevin Durant s Rockets Nov and Victor Wembanyama s Spurs Nov in a pair of marquee group stage games Prediction - - overall after TBD games Dec Jan Xmas then a hangover marathon After hosting Anthony Edwards for Christmas dinner the Nuggets embark on just their third seven-game road trip of the Nikola Jokic era unless you also want to count the bubble as a really really long road trip They went - and - on the other two In fact this is their first roadie longer than five games since February The holiday season is tough timing but there is a silver lining Eastern Conference opponents Orlando and Cleveland are the preponderance imposing teams on a trip that spans from South Florida to Canada Toronto is where the Nuggets will toast to the new year Then they ll make their way to the eastern seaboard with three highly winnable games to end the journey at Brooklyn hello Michael Porter Jr Philadelphia hopefully hello Joel Embiid and Boston unfortunately no hello for Jayson Tatum Prediction - - overall Jan Feb Through the All-Star break Denver plays five of its league-leading back-to-backs during this stretch There s a Wednesday ESPN tilt in Dallas right after leaving New Orleans where the nightlife is more likely to take a toll than the Pelicans There s a home back-to-back against Charlotte on a lazy Sunday that might conflict with a Broncos playoff competition And there are challenging short-rest battles in store for the gang s best defenders against Giannis Antetokounmpo Jan in Milwaukee Kawhi Leonard Jan and Jalen Brunson Feb This is around the time of year when Jamal Murray usually heats up but Denver s hoping he ll already be in peak form by January this time Will he be making a push for his first All-Star Competition during these weeks Other notable dates MPJ s return to Denver Jan the first of four OKC Thunder matchups that are all scheduled within a two-month window Feb a tour day from New York to Chicago during the agreement deadline and home games against the Cavs and Lakers So LeBron James should be in town for at least one of those Prediction - - overall Feb March Dog days Easily the preponderance challenging portion of the schedule from a competition standpoint In their first games out of the All-Star break the Nuggets will face the Clippers Warriors Thunder twice in OKC Timberwolves Lakers twice Knicks Rockets and Spurs Eight of those games are on the road Four of them are back-to-backs Eight were deemed flashy enough to warrant national broadcasts Pretty much every unit goes through at least one slump during an -game season and this is the obvious moment to project as Denver s in - Unfortunately it coincides with the period of the calendar when playoff seeding begins to materialize Related Articles Nuggets - schedule Christmas Day Michael Porter Jr s return among highlights Former Rocky mascot sues Nuggets for discrimination wrongful termination after hip replacement Nuggets Journal The All-Quarter Century Nuggets Crew from - Nuggets Timberwolves to renew rivalry on Christmas according to document Former Nuggets sportsman s pregnant wife says she was attacked by shark Prediction - - overall March April Home stretch There are pros and cons to ending the regular season with of games at home On one hand the Nuggets are nicely positioned to make a strong final push in the standings against particular weaker competition They should be able to enter the playoffs in a rhythm their November jetlag left in the distant past On the other hand wouldn t it be preferable to not need a final push in the first place New coach David Adelman has already alluded ad nauseam to the importance of being well-rested for the playoffs His ideal outcome is presumably something akin to - when Denver s seeding felt secure and Jokic was able to sit out five of the last seven games That yielded pretty solid results in May and June The Nuggets would have a better chance of following that blueprint if the schedule were more balanced Instead they might be left dueling for position in early April This home stretch includes two Portland games two Utah games and specific other easier matchups on paper But it wraps up with the Thunder and a quick trip to San Antonio where Devonte Graham broke Denver hearts in Competition two years ago Prediction - 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