Remember the name Anfernee Simons.
Who is that, you ask?
He’s only the Portland Trail Blazer who may be responsible for the entire fate of the NBA playoffs.
Going into the final night of the 2018-19 NBA regular season, the Houston Rockets had a shot at the No. 2 seed in the West. That would have required both the Denver Nuggets and Blazers to lose.
But the Nuggets completed a comeback over the Minnesota Timberwolves. And the Blazers? They played just SIX players against the Sacramento Kings, including Simons and Skal Labissiere. Rip City was down 28 points at one point … but thanks to 37 (!!) from Simons and 29 from Labissiere, the Blazers won and clinched the No. 3 seed.
That meant the Rockets will be No. 4. This is important for a variety of reasons, but the biggest of all is this: Houston — if James Harden and Co. beat the Utah Jazz in the first round — can face the Golden State Warriors in the second round, not in the Western Conference Finals.
What’s more is the Nuggets may have had a hand in this a few days before Wednesday. On Sunday, Denver sat Nikola Jokic before the Nuggets’ matchup against the Blazers and benched key starters in the fourth quarter. That led to a Portland win and, eventually, led to the Rockets staying at No. 4. ESPN’s Rachel Nichols summed it all up this week:
Quite the conspiracy. But either it’s a possible hit to a team that could have gone on a long run and met a Warriors squad that would have finished two playoff series and might be a little more gassed. Or — and this is juicy — it sets up the Rockets BEATING the Warriors early and a team like the Nuggets getting home-court against Houston in the Western Conference Finals.
And it’s all thanks to Anfernee Simons and the Nuggets’ roster shuffling.
