Roundtable: Can Denver win it all?

Denver's willingness to play tough defense helped drive it to the West's No. 2 playoff seed and may get the team to the Finals. Garrett W. Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images

SI.com's NBA writers analyze the latest news and address hot topics from around the league each week.

1. The Nuggets have rolled through the playoffs, losing only one game, by two points. Are the Nuggets taking advantage of overmatched opponents or are they a real threat to win the NBA title?

Ian Thomsen: As a team, the Nuggets haven't been out of the first round before last week, so it's too big a leap to think they could blow past the Lakers to the Finals. Of course, everything would change if Houston were to upset Los Angeles -- but the Rockets also have no deep-playoff understanding, and they're probably going to realize the importance of that experience as the Western semifinal with the Lakers progresses.

A big reason L.A. and Cleveland are prohibitive favorites to reach the Finals is because each has been that far already over the past couple of seasons. They know what to expect, while the Nuggets (apart from Chauncey Billups and Kenyon Martin) still have to learn the hard way.

Chris Mannix: Denver is the real deal. The Nuggets are explosive offensively (they can turn a two-point lead into a 20-point edge faster than any team still in the playoffs) and, thanks to a commitment to defense that began in training camp and was accelerated by the acquisition of Billups, they are a terrific defensive team. The questions about the Nuggets -- specifically, how their front line would hold up against a more physical team -- are still there, but thus far they have been very impressive.

Steve Aschburner: I'll admit I did a double-take when I heard Charles Barkley pick Denver as his favorite now to win the NBA championship. Then I started to warm up to the idea, and now I have just one big reservation different from what might apply to any team (that is, a star getting hurt changes everything). The Nuggets have in Billups a veteran point guard playing great, with the ability to hurt you in the half court or in transition, and the size to get physical with your playmaker. They have a big and active front line, a deep bench growing in identity and impact by the game and a potentially deadly scorer in Carmelo Anthony. My caveat? How they'll handle adversity.

If Denver falls behind in a series or if it reaches the West finals and has to navigate without home-court advantage, I wonder how its players, and even coach George Karl, will react. From what reservoirs will it draw? Still, no offense to the Lakers (and I have no idea what the TV ratings would be), but the prospects of Billups dueling Mo Williams, Kenyon Martin banging into LeBron James, Nenê battling Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Chris Andersen hooking up with Anderson Varejao -- with Karl back where he got his NBA head coaching start 15 years ago -- all are intriguing.

Scott Howard-Cooper: They are taking advantage of overmatched opponents because they are making the opponents appear overmatched. Dismiss the Nuggets at your own risk. These are earned accomplishments, not fluke advances, even with the understanding that it has been beneficial to get the Hornets and Mavericks as opposed to the Lakers, Rockets or healthy Spurs. But if you go from a regular season of tying for the second-best record in the conference, put the needle for defensive pressure into the red, and get impressive game after impressive game in the playoffs, you're a real threat. Not the favorite -- Cleveland is -- but a real threat.

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2. What has surprised you most in the playoffs thus far?

Ian Thomsen: I still can't get over how well the Bulls played against Boston in the first round and how competitive the games were. When people ask whether that was the "greatest" series of them all, I think it's the wrong question because no first-round series can be ranked ahead of some of the most exciting NBA Finals (including several Lakers-Celtics meetings over the years). But that had to be the most entertaining series I've ever seen.

Chris Mannix: We knew Cleveland was good ... but this good? I didn't expect Detroit to compete with the Cavaliers in the first round, but I didn't expect the Pistons to get blown out by an average of 15.5 points per game, either. And then a 27-point blowout of the Hawks after a nine-day layoff? Allowing a solid Atlanta team to score 28 points on 30 percent shooting in the second half? That's impressive. After watching the Cavs through five games, I'm not sure any team can stop them. Not even the Lakers.

Steve Aschburner: Houston's success. I didn't even think the Rockets would beat the Trail Blazers, much less swipe Game 1 from the Lakers. Yao Ming helped himself and his teammates tremendously that night by showing resiliency after banging his knee. Ron Artest has been such a good soldier that even I'm thinking of offering him a multimillion package in free agency. And while it's a little cruel to think about Tracy McGrady's team advancing to the second round the first chance it gets in the playoffs without him, it sure is an interesting wrinkle.

Scott Howard-Cooper: I'm going Nuggets again. I was a non-believer much of the season. I thought Denver was pretty good, but also picked its first-round opponent, the Hornets, as the sleeper heading into the playoffs. I thought Denver was pretty good, but also untested in the postseason, and therefore undependable. I thought Denver was pretty good, but also a risk to become unhinged. So to be this commanding has to be a surprise.