Why not us? The wonder of a miracle like the Braves

“April First. The day upon which we are reminded of what we are on the other three hundred and sixty-four.”

– Mark Twain

On April Fool’s Day 2021, the Atlanta Braves played a bit of a goof on their fanbase, losing their season opener in extra innings at the Phillies. They laid on for good measure – just to make sure the fans knew what a topsy-turvy year it was going to be – and lost their first four games. Then, just for fun, they swept back over the next four and evened themselves up to 4-4, all in the first nine days of their season.

That semi-mediocrity would follow them through a lot of their season. The only reason they found themselves 40-41 at the halfway point of their season was a three-game winning streak to get them there. Although they’d been picked to win their division, they were having a hell of a time simply keeping up with the rest. A loss on August 1st had the team three game below .500 (52-55) 107 games into the season.

And then something clicked. But we’ll get back to that.

As of the fourth, the Denver teams that are all playing their season are all 4-4. To be fair, the Avalanche are 4-4-1, but.. you get the point. If you follow Denver sports, you know that everyone playing is stuck deep in the throes of meh. Every time the Nuggets start to catch fire a bit, they go through a shooting slump or have their defense fall apart at the wrong moment. Every time the Avs start to look like the world beaters they were for most of last year, they see the defensive line turn into a sieve or their shots start missing posts. And the Broncos… Oh the Broncos.

The Broncos feasted early in the season on a few struggling squads and narrowly beat an outmatched Washington squad to make their season 4-4. The four losses sandwiched in between were fairly embarrassing, and Denver did their damnedest to give last week’s game away as well. They are so confident in the second half-plus of their season that they traded away one of the best players they’ve ever had. So… there’s that.

For v2 of the Miracle Braves, something clicked. After Game 107 mentioned above, Atlanta would go on to win 16 of their next 18 games on the way to turning the last third of their season into a warmup for what would eventually become their first title in 26 years, their second in Atlanta, and the organization’s fourth title overall. Every round of the playoffs this offseason, the Braves were considered underdogs, and simply didn’t care. They roundly outplayed their competition at every stop, and simply willed their way to a title.

Would any of Denver’s 4-4 squads have a clean shot at a title themselves this year? What would need to go right for one of the many meh to win a ring?

Well, for the Denver Broncos, several things would need to come around quickly. While the Nuggets and Avs are less than 10% of the way into their seasons, Sunday’s game against Dallas puts the Broncos past the halfway mark of their year. The Cowboys are one of the hottest clubs in the league, and then Denver has five of their six divisional games yet to come. Contests against Cincinnati, Philly, and Detroit to finish out the season. The Broncos may be favored in one of the games they’ve got left all season. For them to win enough of those game to make the playoffs, and then run the table to a ring after trading away the heart of the team, Von Miller…?

Well, let’s just say it would take a bigger miracle than the Braves saw this season for those pieces to fall into place.

The Avalanche may have a much clearer shot at making it all the way through, as they are still integrating several new pieces into their scheme and team. After a few seasons of being the shiny regular season darlings, Colorado realized they needed to make some shifts to how they came into the grind of the postseason. While they haven’t fully found their cohesion or rhythm just yet, they have shown flashes of being a tough and dangerous squad if they can hit a string of luck and intangibles like Atlanta did. Nate MacKinnon and Gabe Landeskog lead a supremely talented squad that just needs to work out a few kinks.

The Nuggets might have an even better chance of shocking their world by making a run at their first title. MVP Nikola Jokic has shouldered the entire team while they wait to get (hopefully) get superstar Jamal Murray back for the second half of their year. Stud shooter Michael Porter, Jr. has struggled out of the gates, but the law of averages demands that MPJ will quite probably come back around, and Denver’s usually porous defense has held five of their first eight opponents under 100 points. If they can keep shaping the team and stay focused together, a little luck could finally bring an NBA title to Mile High Basketball.

Why not us? Why can’t the Nuggets or Avs put this all together before the season really comes to a head? Hell, maybe even the Broncos could pull it off… But that might actually take a verifiable miracle. There are a couple of teams in Denver that are not coming out of the gates like a house of fire, but still appear to have all the pieces to make it interesting when it all really counts.