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“Remember, when I first came in the league, I couldn’t shoot. “It just shows the work I’ve put in each offseason,” he said. But he also shot 3-for-5 from deep in the game and that was special to him. His signature moment was a driving reverse layup that helped put the win on ice. He scored 10 points through three quarters. “We knew they were going to trap Jamal and try to get the ball out of his hands, so the other four players were going to have to make plays, and then luckily it was just my time in the fourth quarter.” “I really just wanted to be aggressive,” he said.
In a game with Jokic and Murray and Butler and Bam, the guy who was largely ignored last summer loomed largest. He was the best player on the floor in the fourth quarter of an NBA Finals game. Well, the money wasn’t right for Brown, but the opportunity in Denver was priceless. Hard to imagine that now, huh? Brown had to settle for a team friendly two-year mid-level-like deal from the Nuggets.
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Last summer Bruce Brown drew very little interest on the free agent market. That underlines how well the Nuggets rallied around Jokic and at times rescued him.īruce Brown talks about coming alive in the 4th quarter against the Heat in Game 4. You know what’s really unfathomable for a team that relies so much on its franchise player? Jokic’s last points of the game came with 6:29 left in the third quarter. And then KCP, much maligned in this series, put the clamps on Miami’s two best players in successive possessions - denying Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo in the post. “But I can say, not just tonight, but throughout these playoffs, the non-Nikola minutes have gone really well.” “They had us on our heels, and usually in the regular season when Nikola went out, things kind of went haywire,” said Nuggets coach Michael Malone. Imagine that: The Nuggets, on the road, without their foundational player, a team that imploded all season when Jokic wasn’t on the floor … held it together. In Game 1, they managed to escape in Game 2, their lapse cost them.īut the last two games? All Denver, and especially the fourth quarter of Game 4, which was impressive given the circumstances - Jokic earned his fifth foul and was forced to the bench with the Nuggets up 10.Īnd what happened during the 5:13 that Denver played without him? They lost only a point on that lead. Sounds hard to believe now, but the Nuggets lost the fourth-quarter battle through the first two games of this series. Nightly Notable: Aaron Gordon lifts Nuggets with 27 points
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Here are five takeaways from the Nuggets’ 108-95 win, including what worked right for Denver, the Heat’s dire straits, and what might be in store when this series shifts to Denver: “We’re focused, dialed in, and ready to do this thing,” said Murray. The Nuggets used five players in double-figure scoring, including a playoff career-high 27 points by Gordon, to outlast the Heat and now hold a Finals lead that only one team in history managed to blow, and that’s the 2016 Warriors against LeBron James and the Cavaliers. What an unexpected but welcome team effort: Aaron Gordon delivering his most important game in a Nuggets’ uniform Kentavious Caldwell-Pope coming up with a pair of sterling defensive stops in the fourth Jamal Murray showing poise and playmaking all game Bruce Brown looming large in a decisive fourth quarter when it could’ve all crumbled.īut Denver gave Jokic, who carried a twisted ankle for three quarters, some valuable support - especially when he developed foul trouble. The analytical stats and the eye test told no lies: The Nuggets were average - and that’s being kind - whenever Jokic wasn’t on the floor.īut Game 4 of the Finals will be the moment when the Nuggets repaid their two-time regular-season MVP (and soon-to-be NBA Finals MVP) if this 3-1 Nuggets lead holds up. You could even go back the last five or so years, that’s how broad Jokic’s shoulders were.
MIAMI - The NBA postseason, the NBA Finals and the entire Denver Nuggets’ season, actually, experienced a twist on Friday: Nikola Jokic was carried by his teammates for a change.įor most of the season and the playoffs and through four games of the Finals, it was quite the opposite. Aaron Gordon led a solid performance from the supporting cast, pacing Denver with 27 points.
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