Resilience!

Resilience is the only way to describe the Nuggets' first-round victory over the Clippers. The Clippers had the better coach, the deeper roster, and were perhaps playing the best basketball down the stretch in the Western Conference. Meanwhile, the Nuggets had fired their Head Coach and GM on April 8th, with 3 games left in the Regular Season and were a mess. Despite all that, we got a gem of a series between the 2 teams as it went 7 games with Denver prevailing at home in the final game in dominant fashion. Let's go back to the moment this series turned:

The Nuggets were one-tenth of a second away from potentially being down 3-1 in the series. Had the Aaron Gordon Dunk happened any later, game 4 was going to overtime. With the Clippers winning game 2 in Denver and blowing the doors off them in game 3 back at Intuit Dome, it was paramount that Denver needed to win game 4 to stabilize the series. After 3 quarters, it looked like the Nuggets had game 4 locked up as they were up 83-63 and later pushed it to 85-63 early in the 4th. Then the Clippers made their run. They went on a 36-14 run to tie the game up at 99-99. There were about 5 seconds left, and the Nuggets had possession last. Jokic put up a heave from near the 3-point line with very minimal time on the clock, and his shot sailed wide left. Gordon, smartly, was able to see that the ball was not going in and dunked it in just before the buzzer sounded, and all of a sudden it was 2-2.

The Clippers had a chance to win every game in this series from game 1-4. They were up as much as 15 in game 1, won game 2, dominated the Nuggets in game 3, and had Aaron Gordon been late, they had all the momentum going into overtime of game 4 and had a good shot of winning that game. I know it's not that cut and dry, maybe if the Clippers had won game 1, the Nuggets would have game 2. Who knows, but one thing is for certain, the Clippers were he much better team in games 1-4, and the series was only 2-2. It was at this moment that the Nuggets went from the surviving prey to the relentless predator. Game 5 saw a dominant Nuggets win for the first time all series, where playoff Murray made an appearance, scoring 43 points on 17/26 shooting. The Nuggets had 6 players in double figures as they dominated 131-115 in the pivotal game 5 at home. The Clippers took game 6 in a do-or-die situation. Harden, Kawhi, and Norm Powell played incredibly, combining for 79 points to force game 6. In that game, the Clippers dominated the 3rd quarter, a the Clippers went up as much as 15. The crowd was buzzing, and the role player were hitting all their shots, and despite that, it was a 6-point game with 2 minutes left. Though the Clippers won, it was evident that this was not the same Denver team from games 1-4. The Nuggets seemed like the more aggressive team in games 5-6, and LA looked like they were the survivors.

Then came game 7 at Ball Arena. In a situation where the Nuggets blew a 20-point lead in the Western Conference semis vs the Wolves a year ago, ensured that would not be the case a the Nuggets pummeled the Clippers, putting up dominant second and third quarters, which was more than enough to squash any real comeback hopes from the Clippers. And guess what? Jokic and Murray did not have great games, and the Nuggets found themselves up 35 midway through the 4th. Braun, Gordon, Porter Jr, and Westbrook, who have been fantastic all series against his former team, all made important contributions in their biggest game of the season. The Nuggets became the first team in NBA history to have 6+ players have 15+ points in game 7. A team that was so Jokic-dependent for 90% of the season displayed one of the greatest examples of team basketball. I was highly critical of how the Nuggets got rid of Malone, given that he was on the team for 10 years and won a ring just two years ago for them. However, this made me realize that if a move needs to be made, it must be made, and nostalgia or any other limiting human factors should not get in the way of that.

Now the Nuggets go on to play OKC in a battle of MVP Candidates. OKC has been the gold standard of the Western Conference all year. Do the Nuggets have a shot? Absolutely. Is it probable that they win? Nope. But if there is a team in the West that can give the Thunder a run for their money, it is the team led by the 3-time MVP/best player in the world, and it has a Championship pedigree to rely on. Something that OKC does not have yet. With OKC getting 8 days of rest and Denver getting 1 day of rest, Game 1 is a must-win for OKC. Let the second round begin!