What went down
In an intense NBA Finals Game 5 against the Miami Heat, the Denver Nuggets reached the NBA mountaintop, winning their first-ever championship.
After battling foul trouble and the gritty plays by the Heat team, Nikola Jokic put up 28 points and 16 rebounds, accompanied by four assists, en route to a 94-89 victory in front of their home crowd. The two-time MVP received a unanimous vote for Finals MVP, capping off a historic playoff run.
The Heat forced four straight turnovers in the opening minutes but couldn’t capitalize on Denver’s errors. Miami started with 3-for-16 from the field but the Nuggets were struggling to shoot the ball as well until Nuggets coach Michael Malone called for a timeout. Jamal Murray and Jeff Green got their groove going as Denver continued to set the pace and get scoring runs which Miami couldn’t respond to.
Early in the first quarter, Aaron Gordon committed his second foul and joined Jokic on the bench who also had two fouls. Bam Adebayo on the other side took advantage of Green as the center, finishing the first quarter with 14 points to gain the lead for Miami, 22-18.
The second quarter was also muddied by personal fouls that were almost evenly split between both teams. Some 3-pointers from Kyle Lowry and Duncan Robinson, coupled with strong drives to the basket by Jimmy Butler helped them build a 51-44 lead before halftime.
Jokic returned to the floor in the third frame and the Nuggets immediately started catching up to the Heat. Murray snapped Denver’s 13 straight missed 3s to even the score, 60-60, while Michael Porter Jr. connected on another trey for the first Nuggets lead, 69-66.
The Nuggets led by seven in the latter part of the fourth quarter as the Heat went scoreless for five minutes. Butler scored 13 straight points for his team which allowed Miami to take an 89-88 lead into the final two minutes.
Bruce Brown’s putback gave Denver the lead back and Butler’s crucial turnover with 27.4 seconds left allowed the Nuggets to make four straight free throws, which proved to be the nail in Miami’s coffin.
With the victory, the Nuggets completed a 16-4 playoff run and joined the 2017 Golden State Warriors (16-1) and the 2007 San Antonio Spurs (16-4) as the only champion teams to lose fewer than five games since 2003.
