LOS ANGELES – They keep coming, these Denver Nuggets. When LeBron James shot, when Anthony Davis blocked them, it looked like every button Darvin Hamm pushed from Tristan Thompson was destined to extend this series into a fifth game.
Pack it up, finish things off in Colorado?
Nah. The only thing the Nuggets wanted to take home was a cup.
Denver is headed to the Finals, where it completes a run at Los Angeles Lakers With a 113-111 win on Monday. The Nuggets trailed by six points at the end of the first quarter, 15 at the half and LeBron James was cooking. Off the bench, Michael Malone, a Cavs assistant during James’ Cleveland years, realized what he was seeing.
“Vintage LeBron,” Malone said. “He knew time with their team.”
Malone knew what was wrong with his team, too. The Nuggets weren’t playing physical enough. “They didn’t feel us at all,” Mallon said. He looked at the stat sheet and saw the Lakers dominating the transition (8-2) and points in the paint (36-20), while Denver was losing the turnover battle (6-2).
Malone said, “We just didn’t like who we were.”
In the third quarter, the Nuggets were something different. Denver shot Los Angeles 36-16 in the third period, erasing a halftime deficit and taking a five-point lead into the fourth. Nikola Jokic scored 13 of his 30 points in the quarter. ripped 10 rebounds. He reached the free throw line six times. He had three assists.
What a postseason Jokic has been up to. Fed up with the failures of the previous match, Jokic took control of this one. He collected his eighth triple-double on Monday, surpassing Wilt Chamberlain’s decades-old record for most triple-doubles in a postseason. He dropped an impossible, overhead three-pointer over James in the second quarter and threw another to Davis’ outstretched hands in the fourth.
“Larry Bird style,” James said, before literally tipping his hat. “He’s done it like this series four or five times.”
Nikola Jokić “This is my signature shot… I’m kidding. But it’s the easiest shot to shoot when you just have to shoot. Being unbalanced, I’ve been unbalanced my whole life.”pic.twitter.com/tIfa3x7l2c
– Jake Shapiro (Shapalicious) May 23, 2023
He was not alone. Aaron Gordon got rolling. The Lakers were willing to live with Gordon’s shots this series. For the most part, the strategy succeeded. Gordon missed all six of his three-point attempts in the first three games. In Game 4, that didn’t happen. Gordon hit 9 of 14 shots – and 3 of 5 of three – on his way to 22 points.
“It’s about business,” Gordon said. “I’m not worried about them getting in or out. It’s basically a matter of just shooting them confidently, making sure my shot is intact, and then the percentages will turn out the way they are supposed to.”
Jamal Murray zap. On Saturday, Malone recounted a conversation he had with Murray after he tore his anterior cruciate ligament late in the 20-21 season. On the team bus to the airport, tears were welling up in Murray’s eyes. Murray asked Malone if the team would trade him. If they consider it “damaged goods”.
“I hugged him,” said Malone. I said hell no, you are ours. we love you. We’ll help you come back, and you’ll be a better player for it.”
Malone’s words proved prophetic. Murray averaged 32.5 points in conference finals. Scored 25 in Game 4, adding five assists. He connected 55.6% of his shots, the third time this series that he had shot better than 50%.
In the fourth quarter, the game heated up. Davis set off. Tristan Thompson made a shot. Thompson hasn’t played meaningful playoff minutes since 2018 and as recently as last month he was sitting on an ESPN set. Hamm, however, got Thompson into the game early in the second quarter. Thompson responded by putting up hard screens and playing physical defense. Early in the fourth, Thompson stopped a rebound pass from James and Ledek rose.
Lakers got a chance. mosques He has a chance. For James, Game 4 was a powerhouse run. Scored 31 points in the first half. But he was getting tired. He committed a rare technical foul after wrestling with Gordon in the second quarter. He scored only six points in third place. After playing 43 minutes in Game 3, James played all 48 in Game 4. He chased Murray around the perimeter. Jokic fought in the paint. In the fourth, James laid back-to-back MVP charges.
With four seconds left and the Lakers down two runs, James got the ball. James received the inbound, and drove left. He’s got a step on Gordon. Quickly, Murray slipped in to help. “Wake me up, man,” said Murray, who recalls a similar drive James made during the regular season, against Indiana, when he went to throw the ball left-handed. “I wasn’t going to let him get a good angle,” said Murray. James made a powerful shot. He messed up, and Gordon blocked him. He couldn’t collect the loose ball in time for another ball.
the @employee Move to #NBAF Finals Brought to you by YouTube TV!
The: 113
Lal: 111 pic.twitter.com/sJk3xAHQ95– The NBA May 23, 2023
Denver won, and the Nuggets would advance to their first Finals in franchise history. In the locker room, James and Davis were amazed at how complete Denver was.
We have reached consensus [that] “This is one of the best teams, if not the best team we’ve played together all four years,” said James. “Just coordinated well, well. They have the scoring. They have the shooting. They have the playmaking. They have the intelligence. They have the length. They have the depth. And one thing about their team, when you have a guy like Jokic, who’s as big as him but also mentally as he is, You really can’t make many mistakes for a guy like that.”
This postseason has been seen as a validation of sorts for Jokic. Pundits declared Jokic a regular player of the season. “Silly novels,” Malone said. Skeptics dismissed his dominance in advanced stats. After the match, James makes it clear that he is not one of them.
“There are some guys in this league who play the game a certain way,” James said. “A certain way I like to play the game too, and it’s one of them where you’re always so unbalanced when you’re guarding a player like that. He sees plays before they happen. There aren’t a lot of guys in our league like that… everyone gets hacked in his stats but I don’t think That a lot of people are talking about [the mental] Part of his game might not be talked about because a lot of people don’t understand him, but I do. It’s special.”
He will have a chance to show it on the biggest stage in the NBA. With the Finals starting on June 1, the Nuggets will be getting an extended break. “I might go to Cabo for a few days,” Malone joked. For Jokic, it’s a chance to rest. Jokic played 45 minutes in Game 4. He averaged 42 minutes for the series. He added a conference finalist’s MVP award to his growing hardware collection. When he accepted the award, Jokic thought about the journey it had taken him to get here.
“I think I’m really happy for the guys, for the organization and for the way we’re fighting,” said Jokic. “I remember the days when there was no one in our country [arena]. You can hear the ball bouncing on the floor. There were no fans. And [now] We have a sale every night. Just for the organization, just for the people, just for the coach, for all the players that everybody [doubted]I think I’m just happy. It means a lot to me for the group that we have.”