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Nuggets Knights of the Round Table Still Alive to Seek their Holy Grail

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“…Maybe just a little bit of peril…”

– Sir Galahad

The Denver Nuggets were facing more than a little bit of peril as they came into Game Six at Ball Arena, and joyfully are somehow not dead yet. Cue the exhausted medieval trumpet fanfare, clap like you’ve got coconuts, and someone fetch dear Patsy — because the Denver Nuggets have stubbornly charged back from the brink like the Black Knight with a limb or two still dangling in.

After taking down the Oklahoma City Thunder 119–107 in Game 6, the reigning-but-reeling champs have somehow, against both logic and advanced metrics, forced a Game 7 in the Western Conference Semifinals. It’s their second do-or-die showdown of this postseason, their third Game 7 in a row dating back to last season. The Nuggets are not dead yet, just like Python’s most famous elderly peasant. Slightly bruised, on the verge of collapse, but still kicking, still talking back, and very much not ready for the cart.

Let’s rewind. Just two years back, Denver steamrolled to a 16–4 record en route to their first ever NBA championship. They looked inevitable that year. Inevitable like taxes, Lakers fouls, or a Draymond Green tech.

But this postseason? They look more…. evitable. They’ve already racked up six losses in just two rounds. This is not the early-gliding Holy Grail-era King Arthur version of the Nuggets — this is the version that has to face the Castle Aaargh guarded by a killer rabbit (of Caerbannog) and defend themselves with a holy hand grenade of Nikola Jokić’s handiwork. Three, sir.

Denver has struggled. They’ve bled. They’ve even stumbled over their own metaphorical coconuts. But they may still get that Thunderbunny yet.

Much like Arthur, Jokić leads a band of broken but brave men on a noble quest. Game 6? 29 points, 14 rebounds, 8 assists. Meanwhile, an ailing Jamal Murray played the role of Lancelot, charging into the castle and slicing through defenders without hesitation or remorse. Even Julian Strawther got to play a bit of Galahad, keeping the Nuggets afloat before the peril got too perilous.

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Still, it worked. Somehow. Like a Trojan rabbit hurled over a castle wall — the plan seemingly made in each moment, but it caused chaos, and chaos is sometimes all you need.

The terrifying and absurd obstacle still in front of the Nuggets is the defensive shrubbery called the OKC Thunder. Young, athletic, defensively suffocating, and annoyingly unsolvable — they are the playoff version of the Knights Who Say “Ni!”. Maybe the Nuggets will have a second herring in Game 7 as they did in Game 6 — hitting threes, playing stifling D, pushing the pace, and finding the right man to make the play.

Denver has faced greater odds in their past. They know the stakes. Lose, and the story ends with a whimper and six agonizing months of trade rumors. Win, and the adventure continues as the Nuggets move on to the team that has been their Bridge of Death for the last season. If anyone can answer me the Timberwolves questions three, it’s Joker. But they’ve got to get past the Thunder first.

What makes this Nuggets run so infuriatingly entertaining is not how dominant they’ve been, but how astoundingly not dead they remain. In a league obsessed with blowing things up the second something goes wrong (Lakers, Mavs, koff), Denver is refusing to go gently into that offseason.

They’re wounded. They’re tired. They look more like the peasant cart crew than a royal procession. But they’re not done.

And if we learned anything from 40+ watchings of Arthur and his silly band of knights, it’s that the journey — not the destination — is where the real reward, entertainment, and lost limb lies.

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And Now for Something Completely Competitive. Here we are. One more game. One more chance to charge the castle, launch our bunnies, and charge at the Thunder like a lunatic in chainmail yelling, “Have at you!”

These Nuggets are on this quest with an impressive but green new head coach who has steered them through more playoff games than regular season contests. They may not be the smooth, dominant team from 2023’s Holy Grail run. But in the immortal words of that slightly decomposing peasant… They’re not dead yet.

If all the nights and knights of these Denver Nuggets have taught us anything this last decade, it is this: you’d be a screaming fool to try to throw them on the cart just yet.