Tag: 2023 NBA Finals

See the moment the Denver Nuggets won their first NBA title in franchise history

The Nuggets are champs, and Jokic can go buy another horse.

The Joker got the last laugh, and — for the first time ever — the Denver Nuggets are NBA champions.

Denver closed out the NBA Finals on Monday night, winning Game 5 at home 94-89 to seal the series at 4-1.

The Nuggets trailed by a point with 91 seconds to play, but then scored six straight points to put the game on ice at Ball Arena. Bruce Brown sank a jumper and swished a pair of free throws, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope hit two shots from the charity stripe and grabbed the game’s final rebound after an errant 3-pointer from Kyle Lowry.

Confetti rained down and lights flashed as Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and co. celebrated.

Here were the final moments of the game:

As usual, Jokic was stoic and largely unemotional after the victory. It seems like he calmed down a bit after a brief outburst of anger earlier in the game.

Now, after pouring in 28 points and 16 rebounds in Denver’s decisive Game 5 win — another performance contributing to the case for him to be Finals MVP — Jokic can go buy another horse.

Reminder: Nikola Jokic was drafted during a Taco Bell commercial. Now he’s won the NBA Finals

Jokic has come a long way since his unceremonious NBA entry.

Editor’s note: This story was originally published in May 2023 and has been updated.

Nine years ago, one of the greatest players to ever step foot on a basketball court was officially drafted into the NBA. And like hundreds of players before him, that moment was captured on national television.

It was June 26, 2014, and future MVP Nikola Jokic was selected by the Denver Nuggets with the 41st pick of the draft – one of the biggest steals in NBA draft history.

So, how was that momentous occasion memorialized in the annals of ESPN telecasts? With an unappetizing Taco Bell commercial for the fast-food chain’s most-recent food Frankenstein, a quesadilla-burrito called, get this, the quesarito.

Not quite as creative as Jokic’s game turned out to be.

The quesarito did turn out to be a big success, though. It stuck around all this time until finally being removed from Taco Bell’s menu last month. And so was Jokic, who just added a Western Conference finals MVP trophy to a mantle that already includes two league MVPs

Forever connected, maybe the end of the quesarito was a sign that we needed to pay the Nuggets big man more attention. While we were all expecting long playoff runs from teams like the Phoenix Suns and Milwaukee Bucks, Denver was the best team all along.

After sweeping the Lakers, Jokic and the Nuggets are now just four wins from being crowned champions.

The Jokic brothers tossed coach Mike Malone in the air (again!) after the Nuggets won the NBA Finals

This looked like it was so much fun.

The Nuggets won their first championship in franchise history and the Jokic brothers had the best reaction imaginable.

Nemanja and Strahinja, the two older brothers of Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic, are very involved in Nikola’s career. They were even a part of the negotiations when Jokic signed an extension with the Nuggets in 2022.

You may remember the Jokic brothers (and their shared Twitter account) from heckling Jack Nicholson during Game 3 of this series against the Lakers or their near skirmish against the Suns in June 2021.

After defeating the Lakers in the Western Conference finals, the Jokic brothers lifted Nuggets coach Mike Malone and tossed him in the air like a baby.

Once the Nuggets officially won the NBA Finals, the Jokic brothers kept the tradition alive and showed Malone love once again.

Note that while he looked incredibly small in this video, Malone is actually listed at 6-foot-2 and played four years of college basketball for the Loyola Greyhounds men’s basketball team in Maryland.

[lawrence-related id=2060976,2060625,1306444,1230482,1041191]

Report: Miami Heat mascot Burnie taken to ER after Conor McGregor NBA Finals stunt gone wrong

Don’t play with Conor McGregor

Conor McGregor was sitting courtside in Miami for Game 4 of the NBA Finals between the Heat and Denver Nuggets on Friday night when he got into it with one of the most beloved figures in the arena — Miami’s mascot Burnie.

Or maybe it was the other way around, since Burnie approached McGregor wearing boxing gloves and looking ready to spar. Either way, what was supposed to be a fun bit between the mascot and MMA star turned very real very quickly.

After taking what was supposed to be a playful set of punches from McGregor, the man inside the Burnie costume was sent to a nearby emergency room, according to The Athletic’s Sam Amick.

The man was reportedly given pain medication at the hospital before being sent home where he “is doing well”.

Per Amick:

During a mid-game bit in which McGregor was promoting his pain relief spray, he coldcocked Burnie with a hard left hook and sent him sprawling to the floor before landing another punch on the ground while spraying his product on him as he was dragged away.

The skit was clearly by design, as Burnie had confronted McGregor while wearing gold boxing gloves, but the excessive power behind the MMA fighter’s punch did enough damage that medical treatment was deemed necessary.

Denver won the game, 108-95, to take a commanding 3-1 series lead as the Finals shifts back to the Rocky Mountains.

But the true lesson of the night is that even when McGregor isn’t trying to punch hard, he still delivers some serious damage. The next mascot who sees McGregor in their arena will surely remember this moment.

Bam Adebayo dunked so hard he bent the rim in Game 4 of the NBA Finals

This is the third Nuggets game paused due to a crooked rim.

During the third quarter in Game 4 of the NBA Finals between the Heat and the Nuggets, Bam Adebayo released a thunderous dunk for Miami.

Denver was leading the game at the time but Miami was in the midst of a strong comeback effort. The dunk was so strong, meanwhile, that Adebayo may have actually created a crooked rim on the court.

Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic was immediately able to point out that something was apparently wrong with the basket. Take a look at this very strange possession to see how it all unfolded at the Kaseya Center in Miami on Friday:

At one point, Jokic tried to take matters into his own hands and fix the rim himself.

Unfortunately, however, Jokic was not successful in this attempt.

After the stoppage of play, NBA officials needed ladders to come and check out the rim to see if it was level and safe to continue to play.

All things considered, it caused a seven-minute break in the action during the third quarter.

 

Denver, however, then continued an impressive performance for the remainder of the third quarter and had the advantage on the scoreboard leading into the fourth.

Curiously, however, this was the third time that a Nuggets game was paused due to a crooked rim so far this season, per The Athletic.

Overall, this was a strange series of events in the NBA Finals.

 

[lawrence-related id=2073263,2030663,2072498,2072415,2072274]

J.J. Redick hilariously proved Stephen A. Smith wrong for claiming Nikola Jokic has no post game

“That’s not his game.” Uh, no, it actually is.

At this rate, if the Denver Nuggets can finish off the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals, Nikola Jokic will likely earn his first career Finals MVP Award. The superstar Denver center has simply been that good this series and in this entire postseason, dropping masterpiece after masterpiece.

Part of Jokic’s dominance comes from what is essentially a picture-perfect and efficient post game that seemingly no defense — not even the Heat’s well-coached unit — can stop.

But while discussing all-time NBA centers on Thursday’s episode of ESPN’s First Take, Stephen A. Smith shared a truly awful opinion on Jokic. He claimed that the two-time regular-season MVP isn’t known for being dominant in the post. Um … alright?

This assessment drew the ire of J.J. Redick, who not only had an incredulous reaction but immediately tore apart Smith’s baseless analysis of one of the best big men of all time:

Phew. That is quite a way to rebut an opinion that seemingly manifested from thin air. There are some poor offensive plays in NBA basketball. Getting Jokic working in the post isn’t one of them. Jokic in the post might even be the most automatic points in the league and why the Nuggets could win the franchise’s first title.

I’m not sure why Smith would ever profess otherwise, but Redick got him good.

Nuggets coach Mike Malone weirdly interrupted his praise of Christian Braun to rip the Miami press room

This was so strange and unnecessary.

Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray deservedly got most of the headlines for the Denver Nuggets’ Game 3 win in the NBA Finals, but we shouldn’t forget about rookie sparkplug Christian Braun. In 19 minutes of play, Braun recorded 15 points, four rebounds, an assist, and solid defense in an energetic performance Denver needed off the bench.

He also had this emphatic steal-and-dunk in transition.

Braun’s confident play in such a big spot drew a lot of praise from Nuggets’ leadership after they won 109-94. The most notable might have been head coach Mike Malone starting to give Braun credit … before interrupting his praise to blast the Miami press room.

Uh, okay?

 

Even if Malone’s press room thought was valid (I can’t confirm one way or the other; was the aesthetic of the room poor or what?), I’m not sure why he felt it was necessary to criticize at that moment. And I love how he presents it as a sidebar. “Oh, by the way …”

Let your player have the shine and keep your discomforts to yourself!

Oh well. It’s not as if Malone isn’t pushing the right buttons for a squad two wins away from its first NBA title. Whatever works, I suppose!

Miami’s historic comeback season didn’t stop Heat fans from leaving NBA Finals Game 3 early

They could’ve made another comeback!

The Miami Heat have made history as arguably the greatest playoff comeback team of all time. They have seven victories this postseason alone after trailing by 10-plus points — tied for the most ever in NBA lore.

Yet, as the Denver Nuggets cruised to a 2-1 series lead in the fourth quarter on Wednesday night, Heat fans started to leave their home arena in droves. And with a considerable amount of time left! Never mind that, eventually, with 1:22 left, Duncan Robinson put the Heat within nine points as they chased a very doable 103-94 margin.

But nope, even if Miami has proven to have incredible resolve, Heat fans still gave up a bit early for a championship game in a championship series.

Supporters leaving early naturally even saw the broadcast bringing up the infamous Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals, where many left the arena early, only to miss one of the greatest last-second shots in history by Ray Allen.

Thanks to the brilliance of Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, it didn’t come back to bite Heat fans this time. But they should’ve learned this valuable team-supporting lesson a long time ago.

3 bets to make on Game 3 of the NBA Finals, including another dynamite Bam Adebayo performance

Expect Adebayo to light it up yet again in South Beach.

Game 2 of the 2023 NBA Finals fell more or less in line with the incredible story of the Miami Heat’s entire postseason. After taking an initial punch, Miami entered Denver, shut things down in the fourth quarter, and handed the Western Conference champs their first home loss of the playoffs.

In a stunner for the Nuggets, they were forced to pick up the pieces and wonder where matters went awry. But it would be silly to envision them falling apart now. In the expected outcome for the Heat — because they truly believe they’re never out of a game — they’ve got their focus squarely on three more wins.

[betwidget_gambfanduel]

The journey to a championship for both squads continues tonight as the series shifts to Miami for Games 3 and 4 (on Friday). And while these Finals are proving to be unpredictable (in the best way), here are a few bets you can count on for Wednesday.

All odds courtesy of DraftKings.

Jimmy Butler successfully distracted Bam Adebayo at the mic by pretending to pull his pants down

Adebayo totally fell for it!

The Miami Heat are playing in the 2023 NBA Finals right now — one of the biggest series of their careers — but you’d never know it based on their demeanor. I’m not just talking about their composed on-court approach leading them to become the best No. 8 seed ever.

They clearly have a lot of fun off-court chemistry, as evidenced by a hilarious prank Jimmy Butler played on Heat center Bam Adebayo Tuesday.

As Adebayo spoke to the media during his Finals availability, Butler appeared off to the side behind some curtains. In an effort to get Adebayo’s attention (and, more importantly, distract him), Butler pretended to pull his pants down and called for his teammate’s name repeatedly.

Eventually, in an Instagram story featured on Butler’s profile, Adebayo would give into his teammate, break his speaking rhythm at the mic, and laugh about the Heat forward getting one over on him.

Hysterical. What else can you say?

These Finals are tied at 1-1 and seem destined to be a contentious back-and-forth battle that everyone will want to watch over the next approximately two weeks. You’d never know the Heat were stressed about that based on this Butler prank on Adebayo.