The Denver Nuggets have spent the entire season being overlooked. Nikola Jokic was being dismissed as an MVP after winning it the last two years, and people picked teams like the Suns and Warriors over them as favorites in the West, despite Denver being a dominant No. 1 seed.
Those narratives have been annihilated in the postseason, with Denver looking like the best team so far. Head coach Michael Malone is pissed at the lack of respect people are showing them, especially after Game 1, where the Lakers were praised more than Denver despite losing the game.
“A lot of our guys and they may not admit this, you win Game 1 of the playoffs and all everyone talked about was the Lakers. Let’s be honest, the national narrative was that the Lakers were fine. No one talked about Nikola (Jokic) having a historic performance. He’s got 13 triple-doubles now, third all-time. What he’s doing is incredible. The narrative wasn’t about the Nuggets, the narrative wasn’t about Nikola, it was about the Lakers and their adjustments. You put that in your pipe and smoke it and come back saying ‘We’re gonna go up 2-0’.”
Mike Malone goes off on the narratives surrounding the Lakers and Nikola Jokic
“The national narrative [after Game 1] was that the Lakers were fine. No one talked about Nikola having a historic performance. The narrative wasn’t about the Nuggets.”
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— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) May 19, 2023
Nikola Jokic is having a sensational run through the playoffs, one that can be equated with the game’s all-time legends. If he can cap it off with a championship, it may genuinely be one of the greatest playoff runs of all time. He is averaging 30.4 points, 13.8 rebounds, and 10.2 assists so far this playoff run.
Denver Looking To Finally Break The Jinx
The Nuggets still have two more games to win in this series to book their berth in the NBA Finals. This will be the first Finals appearance in Nuggets franchise history, so the pressure to deliver on it will be felt by everyone in the locker room. They have lost in the Conference Finals thrice to the Lakers before, with the latest coming in 2020. It’ll be the sweetest revenge for them to finally get past them.
A championship will cement Jokic’s status as an all-time great. Even if you criticize his defense, there’s just no way to hold that over his head when he’s proven how effective he can be on the court. If the world wasn’t paying attention to the Nuggets and Jokic before this series, they surely will have to now.
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