2023 NBA Finals Recap
The Nuggets win the NBA Finals!
Yes, yes, I know the NBA Finals finished over a week ago. I was going to talk about it last week, but I didn’t have time to write a newsletter. Therefore, I’m talking about the NBA Finals this week, though I am sorry if this is old news now. For those of you who don’t know, the NBA Finals is played over a series of 7 games. The first to win 4 of these games wins the finals. After a great season and playoff run from both of these teams, the Miami Heat and Denver Nuggets were pitted against each other in the NBA finals. The interesting thing here is that the Nuggets were the 1st seed, while the Heat were the 8th seed, which is quite an interesting matchup. Let’s look at a quick overview of each of the games…
Game 1: Nuggets 104, Heat 93: The Nuggets showed their dominance in game one. Nikola Jokić (DEN) gets a triple double and scores 27 points, though Bam Adebayo (MIA) scored 26 points. The Nuggets led for most of the game, with Miami beginning to make a comeback in the 4th quarter, but they couldn’t make it happen. The Nuggets won the first game of the finals, 104 to 93.
Game 2: Heat 111, Nuggets 108: After losing in game 1, the Heat kept it very close in game 2, scoring around the same number of points as the Nuggets in each quarter. Finally, in the fourth quarter, Miami was able to pull ahead a bit and win by a mere three points, making the series 1-1!
Game 3: Nuggets 109, Heat 94: Game 3 turned out to be a fantastic game for the Nuggets' offense as two of their offensive players (Murray and Jokić) obtained 30 point triple-doubles! This was the first time everthat two players from the same team both achieved this in one game! Overall, the game was close until the 3rd quarter when the nuggets took a 14 point lead, which they would only expand before the end of the game, making the NBA finals 2-1.
Game 4: Nuggets, 108, Heat 95: This game was very similar to game 3, at least in terms of scoring. The Nuggets scored only 1 point less, while the Heat scored 1 point more than in game 3. They had a 13 point lead after the 3rd quarter, which they would keep until the end of the game. Since the series is 3-1, the Nuggets only need one more win…
Game 5: Nuggets 94, Heat 89: Miami needs to win game 5 if they are to stay in the finals. Miami took an early lead in both the first and second quarters, and were leading 51 to 44 at half. They couldn’t hold this lead, as the Nuggets scored more on offense, as well as limited Miami to only 20 points in the 3rd quarter and 18 in the 4th quarter. The game came down to it with only minutes left to play, but the Nuggets just edged Miami out to WIN!
The DENVER NUGGETS WIN! This was the Nuggets’ first finals win in team history, so a big celebration for Denver. Nikola Jokić earned the MVP for his outstanding performance throughout the finals, including his two triple-doubles. Miami certainly played well (especially for being the 8th seed in the finals), but the Nuggets were the clear victor here! Congrats to the Nuggets for winning the finals! I wish it were the Indiana Pacers winning, but I’m going to have to wait a while for that…