![]() It felt almost perfect that an unheralded and once-chubby second-round draft pick from Serbia would be the one to lift Denver to the top of a league that, for decades, has been dominated by superstars, first-round draft picks and players who lead the world in sneaker and jersey sales. “What I was most proud about is, throughout the game, if your offense is not working and your shots are not falling, you have to dig in on the defensive end,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. Their beautiful game turned into a slugfest, but they figured it out nonetheless. True to the Nuggets’ personality, they kept pressing, came at their opponent in waves and figured out how to win a game that went against their type. Somehow, after shooting 6.7% from 3 - the worst first half in the history of the finals (10-shot minimum) they only trailed by seven. It made the Nuggets tentative on both sides of the court for the rest of the half. Jeff Green and Jamal Murray, who finished with 14 points and eight assists on an off night, joined them there, too. The tone was set with 2:51 left in the first quarter, when Jokic got his second foul and joined Aaron Gordon on the bench. The Nuggets, who came in shooting 37.6% from 3 for the series, shot 18% in this one. They played like they expected to win, and for a while during this game, which was settled as much by players diving onto the floor as sweet-looking jump shots, it looked like they would. ![]() 8 seed to make the finals, insisted they weren’t into consolation prizes. The Heat, who survived a loss in the play-in tournament and became only the second No. Until Butler went off, he was 2 for 13 for eight points. Miami shot 34% from the floor and 25% from 3. The Heat were, as Spoelstra promised, a gritty, tenacious bunch. “The fans in this town are unbelievable,” said team owner Stan Kroenke, who also owns the Colorado Avalanche, the team that won its third Stanley Cup last year. Denver is the home of the Larry O’Brien Trophy for the first time in the franchise’s 47 years in the league. There were fireworks exploding outside Ball Arena at the final buzzer. ![]() Grueling as it was, the aftermath was something the Nuggets and their fans could all agree was beautiful. “Two teams in the center of the ring throwing haymaker after haymaker, and it’s not necessarily shot making. “He’s had to do a little less this year” on the court, Malone said, “because we’re healthy.“Those last three or four minutes felt like a scene out of a movie,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. ![]() whether it’s in a timeout huddle, in the locker room, at practice, before a game in Houston when he gathered the troops together because we knew he didn’t like the way they were warming up. “All season long there have been so many different examples. “Not only finding his voice but being comfortable with his voice,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. He’s also made big strides in a category that’s not on the stat sheet - leadership. The 6-foot-11, 285-pound Jokic does things at his tempo - using some of the 24-second clock to lumber down the court, more to post up, leaning this way, then that, backing in, spinning or pivoting and the rest to score or deliver a did-he-really-just-do-that? pass. ![]() His 29 triple-doubles in the regular season were by far the most in the league, more than double the 14 recorded by Sacramento Kings power forward Domantas Sabonis. back from injuries, Jokic wasn’t supposed to carry as much of the load this season but he still put up stellar numbers in guiding the Nuggets to the best record in the West. ![]()
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