Entry 6: "Your Denver Nuggets Are The 2023 NBA Champions"
Introducing the 2023 NBA Champions, The Denver Nuggets
By: Liz
June 12, 2023
What does one do when their team wins their first championship? It’s a question with many answers. Some may cry, some may cheer, yell, scream, but the one thing we can all agree on is that everybody who has supported a team, any team, is ecstatic when their time finally comes. For the members of Nuggets Nation, myself included, this has been a long time coming. It was something many of us doubted would ever happen, I’m sure. But we need to enjoy this experience, we’ll never get to see this team win their first championship again.
We’ll talk about the celebration in a moment, for now, I’d like to focus on the game itself.
Game 5 Overview
Game 5 was a rollercoaster of emotions. From nervousness to frustration, anger to hopefulness, and resulting in joy. It was obvious from the tip that Denver came out slightly nervous. They weren’t hitting the shots they’d usually hit under any other circumstances. They shot 1/15 from 3 and had 9 turnovers in the first-half, winding up trailing Miami by 7 [51-44].
However, after what I’m sure was a serious and probably heated discussion in the locker room during halftime, Denver managed to pull their act together to dominate Miami in the second half and close out the series with a 94-89 victory, giving the Nuggets their first championship in franchise history. They were able to do this in front of their home crowd, 19,537 were in attendance tonight. It’s truly special.
Stats: Denver and Miami Fought Hard To The Bitter End
Miami was definitely trying their hardest to extend this series, their players were clearly giving everything they had to get it to go back to Miami for game 6. Jimmy Butler ended up with 21 points, 3 rebounds and 5 assists in 41 minutes, only shooting 5/18 tonight [a field-goal percentage of about 28%], 2/5 from 3 [40%], but shot 9/11 from the free throw line [about 82%]. Bam Adebayo was, once again, the one to keep the Heat afloat in this game. He had 20 points and 12 rebounds in his 44 minutes tonight, shooting just 9/20 from the field [45%], and shot 2/2 from the line [100%]. During this series, Adebayo averaged 21.8 PPG, 12.4 RPG, and 3.2 APG, not an easy task when you’re guarding Nikola Jokić.
Speaking of that man, Nikola Jokić was named the Bill Russel Finals MVP after dropping 28 points, 16 rebounds and 4 assists in 42 minutes tonight. For the series, he averaged 30.2 PPG, 14 RPG, and 7.2 APG. On top of that, he led the entire playoffs in points, rebounds and assists with 600 points, 269 rebounds and 190 assists throughout the entire postseason. Jamal Murray had a great game as well, ending with 14 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists in 41 minutes tonight. But, as many were hoping, Michael Porter Jr. and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope were major factors in the win tonight; 16 points and 13 rebounds in 34 minutes for Porter and 11 points, 4 rebounds and 2 steals for Caldwell-Pope, one of those steals was what sealed the game for Denver.
Celebrating History
I won’t go into a ton of detail in this section, instead, I want the people reading this to go out and celebrate however you want. Go out and drink, throw a party, just try to wrap your mind around this reality that your Denver Nuggets are finally world champs! We all deserve this, it was earned and not given to this team. Be proud of yourself for sticking by them through everything that paved the ‘road to gold,’ you deserve this.
With that, I think I’ll end this article here. It’s late, we all (or most of us anyway) have work tomorrow and it’s already difficult enough to try and sleep after today. Take care of yourselves, and I can’t wait to see [some of] you at the parade on Thursday! As the Nuggets admin would say, “Goodnight Wuggets Wation!”
Sources:
Nikola Jokic furious with Nuggets’ ugly first half in Game 5 of NBA Finals
NBA Finals Game 5: Denver Nuggets win first championship, defeat Miami Heat
Game 5 Box Scores - 2023 NBA Finals
NIKOLA JOKIĆ WINS 2023 BILL RUSSELL NBA FINALS MOST VALUABLE PLAYER AWARD