Nuggets among title favorites as NBA postseason tips

The 2026 NBA postseason is officially here and the oddsmakers aren’t sleeping on the Denver Nuggets.

The Mile High City crew enter the playoffs at +1000 to win the NBA championship, slotting them as the fourth-most likely team to hoist the Larry O’Brien Trophy in June. Only the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder (+115), the San Antonio Spurs (+550) and the Boston Celtics (+550) carry shorter odds.

That feels about right for a team that won a dozen straight games to close the regular season and lock up the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference. It also feels like a number that underestimates just how dangerous Nikola Jokic can be when the lights are brightest but is understandable when considering the toughest competition is on the Nuggets’ path.

Here’s where the full board stands for the Nuggets heading into the postseason

Jokic is averaging a triple-double for the second consecutive season, and he and Jamal Murray became the first pair of teammates in NBA history to each record at least 1,500 points and 500 assists in the same season. Denver also owns the No. 1 offensive rating in the league, a stat that could hint at a deep playoff run.

The road won’t be easy. The Nuggets draw the Minnesota Timberwolves, a team with back-to-back Western Conference finals appearances on its resume, in Round 1. Win that and a potential second-round collision with Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs looms — a series multiple national analysts are already calling one of the most anticipated matchups of the entire bracket. If Denver survives both, the Thunder would likely be waiting in the conference finals. Though, no reigning champion has gotten past the second round since the prime Steph Curry Warriors.

The oddsmakers are clearly buying into this Nuggets core that has been here many times in the past seven years.

Sports Illustrated’s Peter Dewey put it plainly: “I have Denver as my No. 2 team — even though it’s fourth in the odds — because we’ve seen Nikola Jokic and this Nuggets core win a title before.” CBS Sports projects the Nuggets on a collision course with OKC in the Western Conference finals, noting that Denver’s experience edge is real.

At +1000, the Nuggets aren’t favorites. But they’re not underdogs, either. They’re exactly what they’ve been for much of the Jokic era — a team nobody wants to see in a seven-game series. The Nuggets are respected, just not favored after the first round.

The play-in tournament tips Tuesday. Denver’s first-round series begins this weekend.

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