History was made in Denver yesterday as the Denver Nuggets won their first NBA
Championship! The Nuggets finished off the Heat in 5 games, winning 4-1 in what is forever known as a “Gentleman’s sweep”, a 94-89 Game 5 the final nail in the coffin.

The Nuggets were brilliant all post season, losing only 4 games along the way, with their only loss at home all postseason being in Game 2 of this series.

The duo of Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray were outstanding for the Nuggets, averaging just over 56 Points a game, and were the first duo to average over 25 Pts, 5 Rbs and 5 Asts each in a single post season run.

Jokic finished with 30.2 PPG, 14 RPG and 7.2 APG in the NBA Finals and was rightly so named the Bill Russell Finals MVP. Murray finished with 21.4 PPG, 6.2 RPG and 10 APG.

Whilst the scoring numbers were down for Murray in the NBA Finals, his confidence diming to the rest of his team mates all series went a long way deciding the result, particularly the way he found Jokic for the entire series.

Jamal Murray overcame his ACL injuries where a lot of pundits out there thought he may have been done, or battle to come back to his 2020 Bubble form. He proved a lot of people wrong and is a big reason why the Nuggets are NBA Champions.

It was clear watching a lot of these games that Nikola Jokic could have scored whenever he wanted, but he continued to show a lot of confidence in getting his role players the ball to make big plays. Whether it was Christian Braun in Game 3 giving them all out hustle plays, Bruce Brown and Aaron Gordon in Game 4 with their 20+ point offensive explosion, or the high intensity plays today from a man who struggled all series in MPJ, the Nuggets just had
all the answers for the Heat.

You could make an argument that the real Finals MVP was Bruce Brown, but unfortunately these awards aren’t given to those who don’t give the people the ultimate stats (cue the Andre Iguodala fans).

Game 5 went down to the wire, and was an old school dog fight to the very end to win Denver their first NBA title. It showed the heart of the 8 th seeded Miami Heat, who continually hit shots down the stretch courtesy of Kyle Lowry and Jimmy Butler, who came alive late but had an extremely tough night throughout. Butler was quiet all series long for a Heat team screaming out for a guy to take over the game and win them the series, but the long playoff run burnt this team out in the end.

Bam Adebayo was brilliant for the Heat in the NBA Finals and truly kept them alive with his play, averaging just shy of 22 PPG to go along with 12.4 RPG. Question marks were raised over the play of Bam after he struggled against the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals, but he showed up when it mattered most on the big stage, it just wasn’t enough in the end.

Miami’s role players started the series hot, particularly Gabe Vincent in the opening 2 games, but he really struggled from Game 3 onwards. Duncan Robinson and Max Strus couldn’t give them what they offered in Game 2, as the Heat struggled from the 3 point line giving them next to no chance against a team as good as the Nuggets.

If there was ever such thing as a morale victory though for Miami, it had to be competing until the very end, given how long this playoff run had been for them, and how much they had already accomplished. No one could have seen this run coming from Miami, but they’ll be needing another piece to give this team another finals push next season.

This may be the first title for the Denver Nuggets, but as long as this core is kept together, it won’t be their last. They’ll need to continue to add to their bench in the off season, with the likes of Jokic (Serbia) and potentially Jamal Murray (Canada) having long off seasons competing in the upcoming World Cup.

Having a shorter off season through the upcoming World Cup may give the likes of Aussie Jack White a chance to make more appearances next season. His rookie team mate Christian Braun also became the 5 th player in the history of the league to win an NCAA Title with Kansas and an NBA Title with the Nuggets in the same season.

Congrats to the Denver Nuggets on a stellar NBA Championship run, and what was a fantastic NBA Season overall.

The Nuggets will go into next season as the team to beat, and there will be plenty of teams fighting for what they were just able to achieve!

Cheers
Bauky