The Denver Nuggets to the surprise of many across the American sports landscape, locked up the #1 seed in the western conference heading into this years postseason and with their opponent in round 1 to be determined tonight in the play-in game between the Timberwolves and Thunder, Dahl and Aaron spoke with Denver Fox anchor Taylor Kilgore about the upcoming playoffs. Kilgore grew up around the game of basketball as her father was a coach and she played collegiately at Cal Poly Humboldt University and now she covers the Nuggets for Fox 31 Sports out of Denver.

Kilgore’s passion for basketball has grown from a young age and she says she owes so much in her life to sports and basketball in particular and when determining her career path she said she didn’t think she had the patience for coaching so went the route of sports broadcasting as a way to continue to be around the game she loves. As for tonights playoff game Taylor says she feels silly having a preference in a playoff opponent as anything can happen in the playoffs so it doesn’t ultimately matter but does add she hopes the Thunder to win as she loves to watch their young team play but also thinks the Nuggets would then need to handle them in about 5 games to make the appropriate statement in round 1.

A big part of the Nuggets season this year is the back to back MVP seasons from Nikola Jokic who Kilgore claims is “historically under appreciated” in his ability and effort in leading the Nuggets team to where they are right now, believing a large part of that is the eye test and people seeing that he may not be as naturally gifted as a pure athlete as some other stars in the league and that causing people to assume he is overrated when in reality he is, in her opinion, every once of the star his numbers proclaim him to be. Jokic’s struggle for mainstream acclaim somewhat mirrors the Nuggets team as a whole with a lot of mainstream sports journalists pointing out numerous times what a “flukey” season this has been in the West with the Suns, Clippers, and Warriors sitting at the 4, 5, and 6 seeds respectively with the top seeds being the surprising Nuggets, Grizzlies, and Kings.

Kilgore doesn’t see it that way, believing the Nuggets and Grizzlies could be out to surprise a lot of people and show that they rightfully earned their seeding this season but does add that she is also as skeptical as anyone of the Sacramento Kings, a team she grew up just down the road from in Rocklin, California. One of the biggest threats to the Nuggets though in Taylor’s opinion is going to be the upgraded Phoenix Suns who made the trade for Kevin Durant right before the deadline mid-season who obviously is a massive threat to any opponent he lines up against, “a unicorn” as Kilgore phrased it.

Thankfully for Denver they will have home court locked up for their entire road to the Finals and considering the home vs road splits for teams like Memphis and Golden State being able to play those talented but road-weary teams on Denver’s home court who themselves were a force at home winning 34 games this season is huge. Catch Taylor breaking down the full playoff run and more in the world of Denver Sports on Colorado Sports Night, every weeknight at 11pm for those of you in the Denver Fox coverage area (or those of you with a VPN).

You can listen to the full interview below: