The Denver Nuggets have officially and finally won their first NBA Championship.
They accomplished the feat by taking down The Miami Heat last night and completed the series win with a 94-89 Game 5 victory. Denver’s postseason run has been dominant, going 16-4 through four rounds of play. This was the 14th-best playoff record by an NBA champion in NBA history.
Two-time MVP, Nikola Jokić, was the star of the show for Denver and finished with 28 points to go with 16 rebounds. His big performance helped him win Finals MVP.
Michael Porter Jr. finished with a double-double of 16 points and 13 rebounds.
Denver Struggles
Game 5 was not a beautiful game of offensive execution. The Nuggets shot just 17.9 percent from the three-point line, while Miami went 25.7 percent from deep. They were able to perform much better from 2-point range with 58.9 percent shooting, whereas Miami shot just 39.8 percent inside the arc. Denver also won the rebounding battle of the boards convincingly against Miami, 57-44. They also scored more fastbreak points, winning 19-12 in that statistical category.
Denver got off to a 12-5 start by pushing the pace in transition and getting 4 early points from Caldwell-Pope. Miami, meanwhile, could not hit the broad side of the barn and missed 10-straight shots after making their first two. The Heat furiously came back on a 16-6 run, and Jokić picked up his second foul. This forced Malone to put DeAndre Jordan in, who immediately made an impact with three great contests. Porter Jr. hit two shots at the rim late to put the Nuggets behind just 24-22 at the end of the first.
