Nikola Jokic leads the Denver Nuggets to their first-ever NBA title
3 Min Read
The Denver Nuggets secure their maiden NBA title after a 94-89 game 5 win versus the Miami Heat.
-
Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic holds the Finals MVP award after his team won the NBA Finals in a game victory against the Heat, Denver, US, June 13 2023. (AP)
The Denver Nuggets secured their first-ever NBA title on Tuesday, beating the Miami Heat 94-89 at the Ball Arena, after successive historic performances by Serbian basketball star Nikola Jokic throughout this year's playoff run.
The Serbian big man put up a double-double as he grabbed 28 points and 16 rebounds in game 5 of the NBA finals, bringing the small market team their maiden title.
"I've got news for everybody out there. We're not satisfied with one," Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. "We want more."
Jokic has previously won two NBA Most Valuable Player awards and has been named an All-Star in 5 of his 8 years in the league, received the NBA Finals MVP for his stellar performances versus the Miami Heat.
"It was amazing effort by the team," Jokic said. "It was an ugly game. We couldn't make shots. But at the end we figured it out, how to defend and we scored 90 points. That's why we won. I'm just happy we won the game.
To add to his accolades, the Nuggets' center achieved 10 play-off triple-doubles in a single run surpassing the previous record set by NBA legend, Wilt Chamberlain, who got 7 back in 1967.
Remarkable Miami playoffs run
The Miami Heat's hopes for an NBA title were squashed on Tuesday after a gritty game 5 ended their sensational playoff run.
The Heat, led by 5 times All-NBA Team and NBA All-Defensive second-team honoree, Jimmy Butler, pushed their way through the Eastern Conference in a completely unexpected campaign.
Contributions from all around the 8th-ranked team spurred the Heat to decisive wins against the 1st-ranked Milwaukee Bucks and the New York Nicks.
Miami faced off versus the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals and were given a 3% chance to qualify for the NBA finals, as they took on the star-studded Celtics.
The Heat even had to win a play-in game to qualify for the playoffs in the first place.
"There's no regrets on our end," Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said after the game "There's just sometimes where you get beat, and Denver was the better basketball team in this series. That's about as hard — I don't know how long it would take me to go through the autopsy of this final game, but I would say that it will probably rank as our hardest, competitive, most active defensive game of the season, and it still fell short."
Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler pointed to the strongly-knit relationship between the team's players as Adebayo said, "You take the experience of this season, and if you can just bottle that up and everybody just have their own portion or rewritten story of it, the No. 1 thing, I think, would be will," adding, "So looking forward, I think this is one of my favorite teams I've ever been a part of because we willed our way through ups and downs.
"We willed our way through the things that people said we couldn't do."
