After cruising through the West, the Denver Nuggets find themselves just one win away from the NBA Championship. Back in Denver for Game 5 tomorrow, we could soon be talking about the Nuggets as champions of the basketball world.
Despite how close they are, however, Michael Malone isn’t letting his team get caught up in the moment. As he explained to the media ahead of Game 5, the Nuggets are going to play like their backs are against the wall, just as they have all postseason long.
“My biggest concern heading into any closeout game is human nature and fighting against that,” said Malone. “We’re up 3-1 and most teams when they are up 3-1, they come up for air and relax and they just kind of take it for granted. The neat thing for us is that we’ve been down 3-1 before, and we’ve come back and won, and we know anything is possible. Our approach has to be that we’re down 3-1. They’re desperate, we have to be more desperate. They’re hungry, we have to be hungrier.”
hungry pic.twitter.com/cAuwcNajKw
— Diamond Dog (@DiamondDogzzz) June 11, 2023
The Nuggets have played with this sort of underdog mentality for weeks now, and it has helped fuel an impressive stretch of play. Against the Wolves, Suns, and Lakers, the Nuggets took care of business and never let the series get out of their control.
In the Finals, they are on the verge of doing the same, but it’s not quite over yet. Just like the Nuggets, and many other teams, have come back from down 3-1 before, the Heat can still respond and come back to win the whole thing.
The Nuggets Are The New Team To Beat In The West
Assuming Denver closes this series out in five or six games, they will be the team to beat next year when the new season begins. And as long as Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, and Michael Porter Jr. are healthy, the Nuggets will be favored to win the West again.
In these playoffs, the Nuggets have finally proven that they can deliver in the biggest moments and nobody can deny that they lack the heart of a champion. Fans can only hope that the franchise continues to build on this momentum in the future.
No matter what happens next season or beyond, nothing will take away this season from the Nuggets, and what they were able to accomplish this year will not be easily forgotten by the NBA history books.
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