DENVER (AP) — Nuggets rookie Christian Brown is getting high praise from coach Michael Malone, and star teammates Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray are also cheering the rookie.
And praise from them is certainly nice.
But it pales in comparison to his mother’s praise.
Lisa Brown is part of a basketball family — a big family. She and her six siblings in the Sandbothe family, all state players who went to college on athletic scholarships, were inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame together in 2019. She starred for Missouri, where she was a two-time All-Big Conference selection Eight.
“My mom never gives me constructive criticism,” said Brown, whose father also played the game in college. “My mom is more important. She’s not constructive most of the time. You’ll throw it out there once in a while, but my mom is definitely one of the crucial group.”
Brown — the only rookie in Denver’s eight-man rotation now in the NBA Finals — is looking to win championships in back-to-back seasons. He helped Kansas win the NCAA title in 2022.
Hierro watch
The expectation around the Miami Heat was that Tyler Hero would be ready to make a comeback at some point in the NBA Finals.
Whether that means Game 2 on Sunday, Game 3 on Wednesday or later remains unclear.
Herro broke his right hand in Game 1 of Round 1 against Milwaukee. He’s recovered from surgery and has been getting shots for days, edging toward a comeback — but if Heat coach Eric Spoelstra knows when Hiro will return, he’s not tipping his hand.
“The situation has not changed yet,” Spoelstra said Saturday. “I’m not trying to be too far-fetched about it. … All we’re focused on right now is his process, getting it going and getting ready. When that schedule is, and where he’s ready to go, I’ll let you know.”
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Denver’s Jamal Murray has scored at least 25 points in six straight games, tying for the second-longest single-season streak in NBA history.
Alex English scored at least 25 in 12 straight games during the 1985 playoffs. Spencer Haywood also had a 12-game winning streak with Denver in 1970, during the days of the ABA franchise.
Murray is one of three players to have a six-game winning streak: Carmelo Anthony had one in 2009, and Nikola Jokic had one earlier in the qualifying round this year.
And if Jokic gets another triple-double in Game 2, he’ll be just the third player in the last 60 years with one of the players in back-to-back Finals. Magic Johnson had two in a row in 1984; Wilt Chamberlain had two in a row in 1967.
Record the results
This isn’t the Nugget Nuggets that were launched in the 80’s.
But this Denver team is on its way to a scoring record anyway.
The Nuggets have 11,345 points this season. This puts them within the all-time record for single-season touchdowns – 11,671, which was set in 1984-85.
Miami scored 11,287 points this season. This is indeed a record of excellence. During the Eastern Conference Finals, the Heat topped their own single-season mark of 10,898 set last year.
Depending on how long the series lasts – and, indeed, in reference to the speed at which the NBA is played today – both teams stand a chance of having one of the top 10 seasons of all time. a goaltender for the Phoenix Suns in 1992-93; Their 11,813 points rank tenth on the NBA’s all-time list.
It is unlikely that an all-time NBA record for points in a season is in jeopardy. Golden State scored 12,161 points in the 2018-2019 season.
East Beasts
No matter how the rest of the NBA Finals plays out, the Eastern Conference has had more success against the Western Conference this season than at any other time in nearly a quarter-century.
The Eastern teams would finish with a winning record against the Western teams for the first time since 2008-09, when they went 232-223 (. 510). This season, the East will win at least 52% of its games against the West for the first time in a regular season since 1997-98 – when they won 58% of their games against the other conference.
The East teams are currently 236-215 against the West, even after Miami lost Game 1 of the NBA Finals to the Nuggets. Miami is 20-11 against West foes so far this season. Coincidentally, the Nuggets are 20-11 against the East.
The East also had a 53% win rate against the West in 1998-99, but the two teams faced only 89 games due to the shortened season.
The conferences went 228-228 against each other last season. But from 1999-2000 through 2020-21, the West has dominated – winning 56.5% of games against the East.
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