Nikola Jokic guided Denver to its first NBA title in team history, as the Nuggets overcame dreadful shooting and a late flurry from Miami’s Jimmy Butler to squeeze past the Heat for a frantic 94-89 victory.
Posted June 13, 2023 12:19 a.m. EDT
By EDDIE PELLS, AP National Writer
Denver — Confetti flying in Denver. The Nuggets passing around the NBA championship trophy.
Those scenes that, for decades, seemed impossible, then more recently started feeling inevitable, finally turned into reality Monday night.
The Nuggets outlasted the Miami Heat 94-89 in an ugly, frantic Game 5 that did nothing to derail Nikola Jokic, who bailed out his teammates with 28 points and 16 rebounds on a night when nothing else seemed to work.
Jokic won the Bill Russell trophy as the NBA Finals MVP — an award that certainly has more meaning to him than the two overall MVPs he won in 2021 and ’22.
« We are not in it for ourselves, we are in it for the guy next to us, » Jokic said. « And that’s why this (means) even more. »
Denver’s clincher was a gruesome grind.
Unable to shake the tenacious Heat or the closing-night jitters, the Nuggets missed 20 of their first 22 3-pointers. They missed seven of their first 13 free throws. They led by seven late, before Miami’s Jimmy Butler went off, scoring eight straight points to give the Heat a one-point lead with 2:45 left.
Butler made two more free throws with 1:58 remaining to help Miami regain a one-point lead. Then, Bruce Brown got an offensive rebound and tip-in to give the Nuggets the lead for good.
Trailing by three with 15 seconds left, Butler jacked up a 3, but missed it. Brown and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope made two free throws each to put the game out of reach and clinch the title for Denver.
Butler finished with 21 points.
Ugly as it was, the aftermath was something the Nuggets and their fans could all agree was beautiful. There were fireworks exploding outside Ball Arena at the final buzzer. Denver is the home of the Larry O’Brien Trophy for the first time in the franchise’s 47 years in the league.
