Rob Issa, FISM News
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The Joker vs. Playoff Jimmy.
The NBA Finals tip off Thursday night with two-time NBA Most Valuable Player Nikola Jokic leading the Denver Nuggets against Jimmy Butler and the No. 8 seed Miami Heat.
“With Nikola, it’s never about looking backward. It’s always about looking forward and challenging himself to become the best player that he can be,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said.
Early on, being the best player he could be was not necessarily about a skill set. It was about maturing, growing up, handling adversity, dealing with the referees, getting into the best shape of his life, losing weight. I think once that all happened, that kind of coincided with our rise.
Butler has taken his game to another level in the postseason in search of his first NBA title in his second trip to the Finals.
“I would like to say that I’m never rattled. I’m very calm,” Butler said.
I’m very consistent in everything that I do, whether it’s before the game, after the game, during the game, and I think when my guys look at me like that, they follow suit in every single way. I love that about them because they’re never shook. No matter what.
The Nuggets are playing in the championship round for the first time in the franchise’s 47-year history thanks to Jokic and a talented support cast led by Jamal Murray. Denver swept the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference finals while the Heat blew a 3-0 series lead in the East finals before winning Game 7 on the road against the Boston Celtics.
“This is going to be the hardest game of our life, and we know that,” Jokic said. “We are prepared for that. We are prepared for that. So, I think there is no favorite. Definitely, I think we are not favorites in this series. I think they’re not either. I think it’s just the finals.”
Oddsmakers say otherwise. The No. 1 seed Nuggets are heavy favorites to win the series. They haven’t played since May 22 but any rust they might have could be offset by a significant home-court advantage. Denver plays at the highest altitude in the NBA — 5,280 feet above sea level.
“We’ve been working,” Denver’s Aaron Gordon said.
It’s not like we’ve had our hands back and feet kicked up. We’ve been locked in, in the gym, working diligently. So, we feel like we’re in a good space. It’s been a good balance of work to rest. Happy we have home-court advantage.
The Heat are seeking the franchise’s fourth NBA title in seven trips to the finals. They lost to the Lakers in 2020. Butler, Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro, and Duncan Robinson were also on that 2020 team that lost to LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and the Lakers in six games.
“This is a special group,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “This group has been able to overcome a lot of different things, handle a lot of adversity, setbacks, things that have not gone the way we wanted them to go. And instead of having that collapse our spirit, it allowed us to develop some fortitude and grit collectively, and give us something to rally around, which was each other.”
The Heat went 44-38 in the regular season and earned a playoff berth by winning an elimination play-in game. They are only the second No. 8 seed to reach the finals, joining the 1999 New York Knicks. New York lost to San Antonio in five games.
The Heat beat the No. 1 seed Bucks, the Knicks, and the Celtics to reach this point.
Denver went 12-3 in the first three rounds, beating the Timberwolves, Suns, and Lakers.
“I told our team, forget the eight seed stuff,” Malone said.
They beat Milwaukee 4-1. That team had the most wins in the NBA this year. They beat Boston 4-3 and they were up 3-0, the team with I think the second most wins in the NBA this year. So, you get to the NBA Finals, it’s not about seeding anymore, and for those who are thinking that this is going to be an easy series, I don’t even know what to say to you people.
“This is going to be the biggest challenge of our lives. This is the NBA Finals. We’re trying to win the first NBA championship in franchise history, and it’s going to be the hardest thing that we’ve ever done, which is the way it should be.”