Denver’s sports run
Denver isn’t just good in one sport this week — teams across the city are rolling at once, from baseball to basketball to hockey. The Rockies hold MLB’s longest winning streak while the Nuggets sit on the NBA’s longest streak, and the Avalanche have already clinched the Western Conference’s top spot — local pro and attendance records even showed up in lacrosse and soccer with crowds of 63,004. (x.com)
Denver’s week got weird in the best way: on April 10, the Colorado Rockies were riding a four-game winning streak before San Diego ended it in 12 innings, while the Denver Nuggets entered the weekend on a 10-game streak and the Colorado Avalanche had already locked up the top seed in the Western Conference. Three different leagues, three different kinds of April pressure, one city hitting all of them at once. (abcnews.com) (espn.com) (apnews.com) The baseball part is the strangest because Colorado was picked by a lot of preseason forecasts to finish near the bottom of the National League West, and then opened April by taking series from Toronto and Houston before pushing San Diego into extra innings. Even after Thursday’s loss, the Rockies were 6-7, which is ordinary for most teams and a noticeable jolt for a club that lost 101 games in 2025. (apnews.com) (espn.com 1) (espn.com 2) The basketball run looks more like a familiar Denver story, just with worse timing and better urgency. The Nuggets were 52-28 and third in the Western Conference on April 10, and their 10 straight wins were their longest streak in 13 years and the longest of Nikola Jokic’s National Basketball Association career. (espn.com) (denverpost.com) That streak changed the math of the season in about two weeks. Denver started the surge sitting sixth in the West, then climbed past the Los Angeles Lakers and into control of the No. 3 seed while the National Basketball Association’s play-in tournament sat four days away on the April 14 calendar. (denverpost.com) (nba.com) The hockey team went even further than “hot.” Colorado beat St. Louis on April 7 to clinch both the Central Division and the top spot in the Western Conference, and by April 9 the Avalanche had also secured the Presidents’ Trophy for the National Hockey League’s best regular-season record. (apnews.com) (nytimes.com) That means Denver is not watching one team warm up for the playoffs. It is watching one team chase a Stanley Cup with home-ice advantage, one team sprint into the National Basketball Association postseason, and one baseball team suddenly acting like the first two belong in its neighborhood. (apnews.com) (nba.com) (mlb.com) The crowd story makes the whole thing feel bigger than wins and standings. Denver Summit of the National Women’s Soccer League drew 63,004 fans to Empower Field at Mile High on March 28 for its home opener against Washington, breaking the league’s single-match attendance record by more than 20,000. (nwslsoccer.com) (fox59.com) Lacrosse added to the pile in a different way. The Colorado Mammoth entered April 11 at 11-5, tied near the top of the National Lacrosse League standings, so even the city’s indoor spring sport is playing meaningful games while the bigger leagues are peaking. (nll.com) That is why this week stands out. Most cities get one team carrying the mood, but Denver has baseball waking up, basketball surging, hockey dominating, women’s soccer drawing 63,004, and lacrosse in the hunt, all before the middle of April. (espn.com 1) (espn.com 2) (apnews.com) (nwslsoccer.com) (nll.com)
