In a very nerve-wrecking game, Denver Nuggets clinched their first NBA title in 47 seasons by beating Miami Heat 94-89 in the game and by winning 4-1 in the best of 7 NBA Finals. This was the third finals loss for Miami heat in the last 10 years.
It was a very hard fought match as the Nuggets shooting 5-of-28 from 3 point range and 13-of-23 from the free-throw line. The Heat weren’t much better, shooting 9-of-34 from the 3 point range, but were sunk by a 71-50 rebounding disadvantage. The Nuggets had a 38/84 field goals whereas Miami Heat had 33/96 field goals.
Once again it was a match performance by Nikola Jokic who scored 28 points, the highest by any player in the match and also had 16 rebounds while Michael Porter Jr scored 16 points and had 13 rebounds. Nikola Jokic was also presented the Bill Russel trophy as the NBA finals MVP.
“I've got news for everybody out there. We're not satisfied with one,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said afterwards. “We want more.”
The championship filled the final gap in the impressive resume of Serbian star Nikola Jokic, a two-time NBA Most Valuable Player and five-time All-Star center in his eighth NBA campaign.
“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”
“The job is done and we can go home now” the Serbian basketballer (Jokic) said.
Denver was the playoff top seed in the Western Conference while the Heat had to win a play-in game just to reach the playoffs but then upset NBA Milwaukee, New York and Boston to advance to the finals.