Denver, CO
The Nuggets schedule has been almost wickedly awful so far; but it will get better – Denver Stiffs
Sometimes I wonder if the NBA schedule makers ever look up from their spreadsheets and complex algorithms and laugh at what they have just done to the Denver Nuggets.
On occasion the NBA just sticks it to the Nuggets in a way that feels personal. Undoubtedly it is not. Just disconnected, cold and unfamiliar with humanity — but not personal. There are many factors that go into schedules that I cannot even fathom. Arena availability and having to play a predetermined amount of games with individual teams who also need to be scheduled out. Plus this season there was the debut of the In Season Tournament. There are a ton of factors that complicate matters.
Additionally about 10 years ago the NBA made the determination that the Nuggets home court advantage that came from teams ending road trips in Denver or on a second night of a back to back coming from the west coast was ‘unfair’. (In reality a handful of executives and coaches whined about it enough to force a change, that is the gods honest truth). So the Nuggets have an additional factor other teams don’t have when considering how to order their schedule. It’s been 10 years so this stuff is baked in now.
All that being said, whoever at the NBA league office determined that the Nuggets should play more games than any NBA team — a full 4 games more than the Oklahoma City Thunder — needs to have their head examined or at the very least denied access to their computer. By January 7th of 2024 the Nuggets will have played nearly half of their schedule. 38 games. While the team played game 38 on January 5th of last season, they began their season a full five days earlier than this year. Last season the Nuggets played 2 back to backs in their first 32 games. By comparison this season the Nuggets played 6 sets of back to back by game 32. By the time they get to game 38 it will be 8 sets of back to backs. Two sets of 7 games in 11 nights.
What I’m telling you is the NBA basically said “You won the title eh? Good for you, here are a bunch of games in a very short time span after a long playoff run… good luck. Oh and please try really hard for the In Season Tournament.”
Thanks for nothing, league.
Considering Jamal Murray missing 10 games with a hamstring injury and ankle problems, the Nuggets playing a several really young players and schedule compression/ridiculousness the team is fortunate to be at a 23-11 record as of this writing. A tribute to their obvious talent and mental resolve.
It’s very clear the schedule asininity is directly correlated to the NBA’s In Season Tournament and only a handful of teams felt the brunt of the poorly conceived schedule compression. The New Orleans Pelicans and Los Angeles Lakers have also been subject to scheduling nightmares (not as severe as the Nuggets but right up there). The NBA is all in on this so we might as well accept that this sort of thing is going to happen again and again, and often to the Nuggets. Geography is not their friend.
You might be wondering what the upshot of this ridiculousness is?
After January 5th the Nuggets don’t have another back to back until February 22nd and 23rd. Games 56 and 57. If you take a look at a calendar it is definitely pleasing to see those darkened squares to nicely spaced out. The schedule returns to something approximating normal which teams like the OKC Thunder, Minnesota Timberwolves and others will have more back to backs and more compressed schedules because they played less games up until January. Advantage to the defending champions.
Nine times out of ten I will take something akin to what the Nuggets have done this year over a compressed second half. Having more rest for a contending team heading into the playoffs is basically the best scenario. After the Nuggets play their next back to back next week they will have only 3 sets in the remaining 44 games. I’ll take that six ways from Sunday. Yes … mid January to late February will have a large percentage of road games but … no back to backs. I’ll still take it.
Despite the NBA’s scheduling madness the Nuggets are set up really nicely with more rest than most teams heading into this year’s playoffs. We probably need to look at this and thing the Nuggets are doing well to be 23-11 and are set up to ‘get right’ as the playoffs begin. Despite the NBA’s best efforts the Nuggets are persevering and that’s pretty awesome.
Denver, CO
Colorado State Patrol urges drivers to remain in Denver amid winter weather in the mountains
GEORGETOWN, Colo. — The Colorado State Patrol said the “best option” is to remain in Denver amid winter weather that’s impacting roadways in the mountains.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the agency said westbound Interstate 70 is closed at Georgetown due to unsafe conditions between Georgetown and the Palmer Divide.
There is limited lodging and parking in Clear Creek County, according to CSP. The agency said the “best option is to stay in Denver.” It is unclear when the roadway will reopen.
Eastbound I-70 traffic was held at the Eisenhower Tunnel due to a crash just east of the tunnel, according to CSP. The roadway has since reopened.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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Denver, CO
How Broncos’ Alex Singleton, Wil Lutz ended up in the Colorado Ballet’s rendition of “The Nutcracker”
If you find yourself in a Christmas chariot this week, perhaps a pair of Broncos will be carrying it.
Denver inside linebacker Alex Singleton and kicker Wil Lutz looked like pros over the weekend at the Colorado Ballet’s performance of “The Nutcracker.”
The duo made brief appearances in the ballet’s rendition of the Christmas classic on Sunday night at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House downtown.
They carried out a chariot with a ballet dancer inside at the start of the Arabian Dance. Then they stood on the stage and posed for a minute before their appearance was finished.
It lasted, Singleton told The Denver Post, maybe two minutes.
And it was nerve-wracking.
“Oh yeah,” Singleton said on Tuesday. “I didn’t know what to do. But it was kind of funny, we just stood there.”
The whole thing came about because the Broncos and the Colorado Ballet each have Dr. James Genuario on their medical staff.
That helped clear the path for Singleton, who is on injured reserve after tearing his ACL in September, to participate.
“That was my first question: Can I do it? And he was like, ‘Yeah, you’ll be fine,’” Singleton said. “I mean, I think the dancer weighed about 80 pounds and the carriage weighed about 10. So I carry more than that every day, which is nice.”
Range of motion is no problem exactly 10 weeks post-operation for Singleton.
“I got to 152 degrees,” he said. “Regular life is normal.”
Performing in a ballet, though, is hardly normal life. Singleton and Lutz had exactly zero advanced prep work for their big debut.
“I think it started at 6:30, we showed up about 6,” Singleton said. “At intermission, before we did it, they showed us how to do it and that was it. We just had to make sure the costumes fit us. … But it was really cool. We got to watch from backstage, meet all the people. It was really cool to see how it all runs and everything.”
Did you see Will Lutz and Alex Singleton in the Nutcracker with the @ColoradoBallet?🎄#BroncosCountry | @gs_off_field pic.twitter.com/Lon7TMqNj1
— Guerilla Sports (@guerillasports_) December 24, 2024
Singleton said he was not particularly familiar with “The Nutcracker,” Tchaikovsky’s famous ballet.
“I still don’t know the story,” he said. “We asked a couple of the dancers and they were explaining it to us. So I kind of know that it’s like a dream for the little girl where the Nutcracker comes alive, but that’s about it.”
Singleton, of course, was Denver’s leading tackler the past two years, a captain this fall and was calling Denver’s defense before tearing his ACL in Week 3 at Tampa Bay. The injury happened early in the game, but Singleton played the rest of the game with it before being told the severity of the injury that evening. He had ACL surgery on Oct. 15 in Los Angeles and then returned to spend time around the team and rehabilitate here.
Lutz has been a model of consistency in his second year kicking for the Broncos. Three days before appearing in the show he knocked home a pair of field goals against Los Angeles, including a season-long 55-yarder.
Lutz is now 29 of 32 for field goals on the season. The only kick of less than 50 yards he’s missed was a game-sealing block by Kansas City in Week 10. Lutz has also made all 38 extra points on the year.
His 90.6% field goal rate is sixth in the NFL among kickers with more than 20 field goal attempts.
On the Colorado Ballet’s social media channels, Singleton gave himself a 7 out of 10 and Lutz an 8 of 10, with the kicker saying he was proud that he didn’t blink once.
In the locker room, at least one teammate was skeptical.
“Oh my god, I had no idea what was going on,” tight end Adam Trautman told The Post. “All they did was pick something up. Now, if they’d have danced or something, that would have been elite. But no chance they can move like that.”
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Denver, CO
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