NBA: Job Done, Nuggets Now Sit Miles Above Basketball World
First time champs are full of feel-good stories and continued hope for more wins
Get lifted, Denver.
For the first time, the Mile High City and its Nuggets are NBA champions. Everything feels like its above the clouds right now in that part of the world, including the Larry O’Brien Trophy, which this group of overlooked stars, disregarded journeymen and one almost-indescribable Man in the Middle got to lift up to the sky after finishing off the Miami Heat in five games of the NBA Finals.
Defense made the difference in the deciding game, a rock fight that hearkened back to closely-contested NBA playoff games of the 1990s and early 2000s, both in style and final score (94-89). Ratings and advance statistics have the Nuggets’ offensive performance overall in this postseason ranked among the best ever, but it took a much more half-court focused game to get the eventual champions across the final mile and through the tape.
Along with the needed stops on the defensive end, the Nuggets in Game 5 continued a great rebounding advantage against the Heat, this time out-boarding the scrappy Eastern Conference champions 57-44.
Of course, Nikola Jokic led the way statistically, as he had all postseason. With 28 points, 16 rebounds and four assists, the Joker concluded his campaign as the Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP and his entire playoff run, in which he became the only player in NBA history to lead the playoffs in total points, rebounds and assists.
Meanwhile, Jamal Murray had a quiet night with 14 points while also contributing eight rebounds and eight assists.
Game 5 was the type of game where the stars stepped up and did just enough for Denver. In spite of more shoddy team shooting from 3-point range (5-of-28), a big three came from Kentavious Caldwell-Pope with four minutes left to give the Nuggets a seven-point lead (86-79).
However, Miami answered with its last gasp of resilience for this season, an 8-0 run to take the game’s lead at 87-86. From there, the Heat only scored two more points and they had to go on to witness a celebration nearly five decades in the making in Denver.
Job Well Done
To be exact, the celebration for the Nuggets and #Nuggetsnation was 47 years in the making.
In a post-game interview with ABC’s Lisa Salters, Nikola Jokic true personality came through glowingly. After admitting to the team’s faults shooting-wise in Game 5, but also giving props to the their defense, the uniquely-built newest superstar of basketball gave one of the more memorable quotes a new NBA champion has ever given.
“The job is done. I can go home now.”
Jokic really did want to go home, even entertaining the idea of skipping Thursday’s victory parade — a decision he admitted he was grateful he didn’t make during the revelry in downtown Denver.
Among a roster full of feel-good stories, the biggest in my book was that of Jamal Murray. As we all know, the Canadian native and former Kentucky standout suffered a torn ACL in April 2021, just prior to that year’s postseason. As he missed that playoff run, and the entire season that followed, Denver just about stayed in place, unable to build off the 2020 Western Conference Finals run in the bubble. Jokic took over the league with back-to-back MVPs but without his second in command he also had to suffer the indignity of being swept by the Suns in the ‘21 conference semifinals.
In the ‘22 playoffs, the Nuggets never got going, as the Warriors gentlemen swept them in the first round.
This was worth the wait for both Murray and the Nuggets as a whole. Nothing but thunderous ovations have awaited Murray since Monday night’s trophy ceremony.
“We proved a lot of doubters wrong,” Murray said after Game 5. “I learned a lot about myself being out for two post-seasons.”
Undoubtedly, Murray can be seen now as one of the NBA’s elite stars and he will be around for years to come to compete at its highest level.
Heat Fall Short
In each of its Eastern Conference playoff series, the Miami Heat proved themselves to be the stronger team mentally and better able to execute in the moments that counted. With 30 seconds left in Game 5 and the game still relatively in doubt, an errant pass from none other than Jimmy Butler went into the hands of KCP and sealed Miami’s fate.
Denver’s great defense had a lot to say late in the game and it did a lot to hold the Heat to only 18 points in their final quarter of the season, but something else seemed to elude Miami all series. In four of the Finals’ five games, Denver held Miami to under 100 points.
Obviously, the Heat were over-matched the entire series, in large part because of the Nuggets’ overpowering size. But on top of that, the Heat got little-to-no contribution from their back-court.
Max Strus showed some regained life early in Game 5, but it wasn’t a difference maker, much like how an excellent series from Bam Adebayo and a so-so one from Jimmy Butler also did little to sway things in Miami’s direction. Butler started slow as Strus emerged in Game 5 but got hot in the fourth, until undoing all his hard work with the costly, last second turnover. Butler finished with 21 points, three rebounds and five assists on the night.
Miami coach Eric Spoelstra was nothing if not proud of his team, who still get to go down as one of the most unlikely NBA finalists in playoff history.
“There’s no regrets from our side. Everybody from the coaching staff to the players put themselves out there and gave their dedication to the team,” Spoelstra said. “We ran up against a team that was better than us.”
As only the second No. 8 seed in NBA history to make the NBA Finals, the Heat have a cake-and-eat-it-too situation in front of them this summer. They can approach the off-season much like any other team that hovered around the middle of the Association’s pack throughout the regular season, meaning there’s an expectation of big moves to be made for a team that was outscored by its opponents over the course of 82 games.
At the same time, they can be confident in a core of Butler and Adebayo that should remain a threat in the East. If Miami wants to make more of an impact than their conference champion teams from ‘20 and ‘23 they’ll likely need to add more dimensions on offense, more play-makers, more on-ball creators and more effective size to back-up Bam.
We’ll see what they do this off-season, but in seasons to come don’t expect the Heat to drop any further than we’d expect the Nuggets’ elevation to drop.
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