Between moving and vicariously attending the Nuggets championship parade, I haven’t had any time to recap the BSB(R) tourney or the NBA Finals. But things have calmed down, and it’s time to give credit where credit is due. Congratulation, Tanc!
It wasn’t pretty for Tanc, who won despite predicting the wrong winner and the wrong representative from the Eastern Conference. But Tanc’s game (at least, in basketball and squash) is never the prettiest–instead, it’s ruthlessly functional. So his BSB(R) victory was on brand. Dare I say Tanc is a goddam trashman all-star!
GEG (aka Greg) deserves a shoutout, too–he had the highest score while also predicting the Nuggets as a champion. It’s one among many reasons to celebrate–he’s recently engaged and just had his birthday. Way to go, Greg!
Finals Recap
With the benefit of distance, the Nuggets’ 5-game Finals victory feels wholly unsurprising. But during the beginning of the series, there was some suspense. Game 1 had a close first half–the Nuggets pulled away in the third, but the Heat implemented a fourth quarter zone that allowed them back in the game.
Although the Nuggets closed it out, that momentum carried over to Game 2, where the Heat stunned the world and got a rare win in Denver. They also win despite a poor game from Jimmy Butler (7-19 FG) and a huge game from Jokic (41 points and 11 rebounds) and decent team-level shooting stats (52-39-86 splits). Turning Jokic into a scorer seemed to stifle the Nuggets’ flow; timely shots from Gabe Vincent and Duncan Robinson didn’t hurt, either. All of the sudden, the Heat had home court advantage and were once again proving the doubters wrong.
The Nuggets didn’t get the memo. Murray and Jokic dominated Game 3–both has 30-point triple doubles–and Jokic had a 30-20-10 game. Oddly enough, this game was also the “Christian Braun” game–the little-known rookie exploded for a timely 15 points in 7-8 shooting and high-energy defense. Game 4 followed a similar script–the Nuggets gradually wearing down the Heat–but the heroes were different. Jokic (8-19 FG) and Murray (5-17 FG) had much worse games; instead, Aaron Gordon (11-15 FG) and Bruce Brown (8-11 FG) rose to the occasion, in particular while Jokic sat critical minutes in the second half while in foul trouble.
With the Nuggets going back home up 3-1, the series seemed all but over. And indeed, the Nuggets put the Heat out of their misery in Game 5. It was a sloppy, defense-oriented game. But as was the case all series, the Heat had trouble scoring, while also having no answer for Nikola Jokic. Jokic took over in the fourth–a fitting end to a season that saw him win Finals MVP, nearly average a triple double through the playoffs, and finish second in regular season MVP voting.
Zooming out even more, this season caps off a remarkable three-year stretch from the Joker. I often think of 3 years as the minimum stretch for a balance of peak ability and sustained greatness–it’s long enough to rule out flukiness and to establish ongoing dominance. And two MVP-seasons followed by this playoffs/Finals performance is a three-year stretch reserved for players in the top-15 of all time. So yeah, this ring helped solidify Jokic as a guy with an all-time peak in this league. For all we know, he won’t get another one, so as a long time Nuggets and Jokic fan, I’ll be savoring this one for as long as I can. Perhaps even longer than Jokic himself.
Alone In The Green Room 