The Denver Nuggets knocked on heaven’s gates Wednesday with an away win, their second of the series, against the Miami Heat and thanks to the phenomenal performance of their two stars Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, they clinched their first NBA title historic records of points, rebounds and assists. The score that ended 109-94 and the tie ended at 2-1 didn’t tell the whole story of a game split in half. In the first case, the equality was constant and persistent. In the second half, the Heat’s dream of leading the game against their own team began to spiral out of control.
With three minutes left, things seemed doomed and the throngs of white-clad Miami fans, who were making the home welcome and after two games in Denver, their first final in nine years, began leaving the stadium en masse. Kaseya Center. No one likes to indulge in disappointment, but traffic is not to be taken lightly on a game day in a major American city.
The two most heard words of the evening over the stadium’s PA system showed frustration written all over their faces: Nikola Jokic, the main cause of their misfortune. The Nuggets’ Serbia star not only put on a great game, but also made history by becoming the first player to score 30 points, grab 20 rebounds and provide 10 assists in a final. But he didn’t want to stop there: He finished the game with 32 points and 21 rebounds in the loose.
Then Jamal Murray made history again with nine seconds left in the game, grabbing his tenth rebound. Also, two teammates on the same team had never achieved what NBA stats enthusiasts call a “triple-double” record (in Murray’s case, it was 34 points, 10 assists, and 10 rebounds). In the press room after the end of the game, the Serb modestly praised his team-mate: “He’s the leader. The rest of us just follow him,” he said.
Paradoxically, Miami seemed to rise from its ashes just three minutes after the loss. He even got nine points. But alas, the miracle remained in the waiting room and the Heat’s coach Erik Spoelstra, and the fans were left with only one consolation: getting a local legend, Udonis Haslem, off the horn with twenty seconds left. Retiring at the end of the season after two decades of loyal service, he still managed to get a standing ovation and also made another kind of statistical history by becoming the oldest player to ever play in a final at the age of 20 42 (43 birthday this Thursday).
The script of the night changed early in the third quarter as the Denver team started with a double-digit lead after two tough quarters that was never lost. The difference escalated to 21 points after two and a half minutes of the last quarter. Spoelstra then called for a time-out. The music played, a sped-up version of Mommy, what will the black man want, but the audience, who had started out strong, was already lost, as was his team.
Before it was time for the consolation prizes, the game had started with the Heat coming out, keen to prove they were capable of achieving what their surprise win in Denver last Sunday risked. You had to seize the moment: It was the first time in the postseason that the Heat didn’t go into their third game with a 2-0 result. It was also the first time they lost at home, having gone nine games unbeaten. The first launch worked for them for about eight minutes. By this point, Jokic was already advancing through the enemy positions like a confident general with his effortlessly infallible semi-European style. The onslaught and nervousness of the local side meant that chance after chance to establish themselves was missed.
The first quarter ended with double equality: in the score between the two teams and in the points scored, 10, by the stars of both franchises: Jimmy Butler (who finished with 28 points compared to Sam Adebayo’s 22) and Jokic. In the ranks of the Nuggets, Jamal Murray, who signed another great game, was the top scorer with 34 points.
The next meeting will be on Friday, again in Miami, where the dream of winning the fourth championship in its history (after those of 2006, 2012 and 2013) is still alive among its fans, even if they don’t believe in it much. “It’s enough that we’ve come this far,” said Big Dan Vainberg just before Wednesday’s game and at the end of a season in which almost nobody gave a dime for them.
The stats still don’t show it: there isn’t a team on the shelves that finished eighth in the Eastern Conference and made the ring finals. That year, the Heat narrowly qualified for the decider playoff, but then they contradicted those who underestimated them by leading the Milwaukee Bucks, the New York Knicks against the odds, and in that order. and the Boston Celtics, who lost out last season and were favorites to win the title in this half of the country.
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