NBA Playoffs - Playoffs - Matchday 48
Denver Nuggets
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Miami Heat
"The city will be crazy," predicts Mohamud Niro. This employee of a technology ensures that Denver, the capital of Colorado, will become from this Thursday until Sunday in a party that will bring tens of thousands of people to the center. The city held the Stanley Cup, the ice hockey championship, last year, but basketball brings back great memories to the city. The history of the Denver Nuggets goes back to the American Basketball Association (ABA), the rebel organization that ended up absorbed by the NBA in 1976. From there came the Spurs, Pacers, Nets and Nuggets. Not to live in the past, fans are confident that Nikola Jokic can finally bring a championship ring in the first final they play in almost half a century in the professional league. To do this they will have to beat Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat.
More information
NBA Final between Miami Heat and Denver Nuggets: dates and results
The origins of Jokic and Butler could not be more different. The Serbian phenomenon grew up in Sombor, a town near the Hungarian border, in an apartment with his parents, two brothers and grandmother. As a young man he preferred math and history classes to physical activity. Nemanja and Strahinja, his older brothers, infected him with a taste for basketball. Jimmy Butler, on the other hand, had a difficult childhood in Texas. His mother kicked him out of the house when he was 13 and lived with friends for several weeks until a family adopted him and he was able to continue in high school. Butler spends a lot of time in his home state, where he visits his families, including his birth mother.
Butler, 33, has proven his ability to get out of unfavorable situations. He was the 72nd ranked player at the institute. Not nationally, but statewide, in Texas. One recruit, however, appreciated the talent that has overflowed in these playoffs, where Miami has always been fighting against the tide. They first defeated the Chicago Bulls, the team that signed Butler with the final pick in the first round of the 2011 draft. Then they eliminated the Bucks and Celtics, the number one and two in the East, respectively. The Heat have become the second team to reach the finals as the eighth seed in their conference. The Knicks had only done it in 1999 with Latrell Sprewell, Patrick Ewing and Larry Johnson (they lost 4-1 to the Spurs).
No one is surprised to say that the Nuggets, who conquered the West, start as favorites. They have suffered just three losses in the postseason and have not played since May 22, when they eliminated LeBron James' Lakers 4-0. But if there is anyone who can beat them, it is Butler and the strategy of Erik Spoelstra, considered the best coach in the NBA. "At this point, we don't expect anything to be easy," the coach said this morning. Tyler Herro, who broke his right hand in the playoff against the Bucks, was present at Wednesday's practice. Spoelstra has ruled out him playing tomorrow or Sunday, suggesting he could be back by the time the series comes to Miami.
Jokic himself has been responsible for taking some of the pressure that the team feels on the shoulders. "We are not the favorites," the center told reporters on Wednesday. "In the finals there are no favorites," he said, acknowledging the great moment that Miami has lived. "This is going to be the toughest game of our lives and we know that."
Despite the message of caution, the city has been carried away by the Serbian spell. Dozens of people stopped this morning at the team store at Ball Stadium, where they remain undefeated in these playoffs, to buy jerseys, caps and other items to show the passion for the team. T-shirts with the number 15, Jokic's, were selling like hotcakes. "Here we were looking forward to seeing them arrive three years ago, but I hope that now we will be paid for our patience with a title," says Marina Izquierdo, referring to the Western Conference final that the Nuggets lost in the Orlando bubble against LeBron James' Lakers.
The press wanted to know on Wednesday if Butler already has a plan to cancel Jokic. "We're going to cover the five of us, the whole team. We have to try, we can't have mistakes defensively," replied the Miami star, who also said the confidence of his teammates, Caleb Martin, Gabe Vincent and Duncan Robinson, is at an all-time high. The 28-year-old Serbian is looking to cement his arrival at the NBA's Olympus with a title. The athlete has already reached the top with his statistics. He was the rookie of the year in 2015-2016 and has twice been named NBA Most Valuable Player. He averages after these 15 playoff games 29.9 points per game, 13.3 rebounds and 10.3 assists. Las Vegas bookmakers believe he will average a triple-double in each match of the final. Jokic has achieved 29 of his 105 triple-doubles this season.
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