The Nuggets just accomplished something for the first time in their NBA existence

The Denver Nuggets have never won or even made it to an NBA Finals, but this season is all about firsts.

Before they can get to this summer’s fun and what the team hopes is a deep playoff run, they had to wrap up the regular season. And the Nuggets have finished in historic fashion, securing the best record in the West for the first time in franchise history.

With the Pelicans 138-131 overtime win over the second-place Grizzlies that clinched their own play-in berth on Wednesday, Denver has clinched the best record in the NBA’s Western Conference. The Nuggets had a chance to clinch Tuesday but lost to the Rockets in Nikola Jokic return from injury.

With three games left and a 52-27 record, the Nuggets now only need one more win to tie for their second-most wins ever at 54. This unit doesn’t have a chance to tie or set the club’s all-time NBA win mark, which was 57. But if you include ABA play, the Nuggets have won 65 games in a season and been to a Finals series.

In no other Nuggets NBA season, not even the ones with more wins, did Denver finish atop the West.

Memphis, Sacramento and Phoenix will round out the top-four with the rest of the playoff bracket still up for grabs.

This is the fifth-straight trip to the postseason for Michael Malone, Jokic and the Nuggets. The two got Denver to its NBA high point of the Western Conference Finals in 2020, and the franchise has been in the final four on four different occasions, but never further.

So, the Nuggets have never been the best in the West in the regular or postseason, but this year one of those marks has come down, and maybe a second will follow.

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