​The 2025 NBA Playoffs feature a compelling first-round "rubber match" between the Denver Nuggets and the Los Angeles Clippers.

The Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Clippers each bring over four decades of Western Conference history to the table, yet they’ve met in the playoffs only twice. That makes this season’s first-round showdown a true rubber match in every postseason sense. The all-time playoff series between them stands at 1–1, with each side delivering a crushing defeat just when the other’s fanbase was brimming with confidence.

These losses have left deeper scars than the wins have brought glory—memorable not for triumph, but for heartbreak. Now, with another chapter about to be written, this often-overlooked rivalry is poised to gain new weight. Over the next week, one team will finally tip the scales and claim a long-awaited edge in their playoff history.

The Team the Nuggets Never Expected to Face

In 2006, the Denver Nuggets were deep into the Carmelo Anthony era. After back-to-back first-round exits, they entered the postseason for a third straight year—this time with more optimism than ever.

Melo’s rookie season had already been a success in the eyes of the franchise and its fans, who were simply thrilled to be relevant again so quickly. Denver squeaked into the playoffs as the 8th seed and were swiftly eliminated in five games by Kevin Garnett’s top-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves. The following season brought raised expectations. The Nuggets had invested heavily in Kenyon Martin and brought in big-name head coach George Karl. But their reward? A brutal matchup with the San Antonio Spurs at the height of their dynasty, led by Tim Duncan. Despite stealing Game 1 on the road, Denver dropped the next four and exited in five games once again.

By 2006, though, things felt different—or at least more promising. It was just the second year of the NBA’s new three-division format, which had reshaped the Western Conference landscape. The newly formed Northwest Division housed three teams on the decline—Minnesota, Portland, and Seattle—a Utah squad still waiting on the Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer era to begin, and the ascending Nuggets.

Denver wasn’t at its peak yet, but with little competition, they claimed the division crown with a 44-win season. That triggered a quirky NBA rule at the time: division winners were guaranteed a top-four seed, regardless of record. As a result, the Nuggets were slotted as the 4th seed—even though seven other Western Conference teams had equal or better records.

Ironically, their playoff opponent, the 5th-seeded Los Angeles Clippers, had a superior record and thus held home-court advantage despite being the lower seed. The stage was set for an awkward—and ultimately humbling—first-round matchup.

Nevertheless, it was the first time Denver entered the postseason feeling like the favorite. This wasn’t Kevin Garnett. It wasn’t Tim Duncan. It wasn’t the Kobe-led Lakers or the high-octane “Seven Seconds or Less” Phoenix Suns. This was the Clippers—a franchise possibly even more forgotten than the Nuggets, with an equally bleak recent history.

Their best player was Elton Brand. His primary sidekick? Sixth man Corey Maggette. Filling out the roster were the aging Sam Cassell, the steady-but-unspectacular Cuttino Mobley, and Chris Kaman—a center who, one imagines, Doug Moe (then an assistant with Denver) would’ve labeled a classic “Stiff.”

This time, it felt like things would be different. Denver had the edge. The momentum. The seeding. The belief.

Or so we thought.