The Nuggets chased LeBron James and Anthony Davis to their fishing yachts in just four games. They sent Kevin Durant and Devin Booker packing in six. They rushed Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards to the golf course in five.
But, no, no, no. Please. Go on. Don’t mind us. Enlighten we basketball neophytes as to how Denver is three wins away from its first-ever NBA championship because it munched on a diet of cupcakes in the playoffs. How this franchise somehow lucked upon the “easiest path to the Finals ever.”
What’s that, you say? Math?
Oh, yeah. We know. The Nuggets this postseason drew an 8 seed (Minnesota), followed by a 4 seed (Phoenix), then a 7 seed (Los Angeles), then another 8 (Miami). Add up the digits and it comes out to 27, making it the highest four-team opponent seed combination for an NBA Finals team in modern league history.
Also: LeBron. AD. Durant. Booker. KAT. Edwards. Fishing.
OK, Twitter trolls, that’s it. Get off my lawn. Out. Now.
Are we seriously going to dismiss the Nuggets’ 13-3 postseason record, and dismiss an emphatic win over the Heat in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, because the Bucks, Celtics, Sixers, Grizzlies and Kings all choked?
Again: LeBron. AD. Durant. Booker. KAT. Edwards. Golfing.
It’s somehow Nikola Jokic’s fault that Memphis scamp Ja Morant loves him some Glendale?
It’s somehow Jamal Murray’s fault that the zebras ruined Game 5 of Kings-Warriors?
It’s somehow Bruce Brown’s fault that Milwaukee coach Mike Budenholzer pocketed his timeouts for a rainy day that never came?
It’s somehow Aaron Gordon’s fault that Boston’s Jayson Tatum rolled his ankle in the first 30 seconds of Heat-Celtics Game 7?
If you’re still convinced the sins of Milwaukee, Boston, Philly and Memphis invalidate one of the NBA’s best playoff teams of the last two decades, Jokic has an asterisk he’d love for you to kiss.
“You have to find ways to improve from series to series and round to round to try to advance,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone offered during the lead-up to the series opener vs. Miami. “But every round and every opponent is a completely different problem and challenge. Every team is built differently.”
Whatever’s been asked, the Nuggets went out and answered with authority. Minnesota’s Twin Towers of KAT and Rudy Gobert? Tucker ‘em out. KD and Devin Booker’s relentless assault? Get up in their faces, then crawl inside their heads. LeBron? Make King James a jump-shooter.
“So I think our guys, if anything, over (the first) 15 playoff games, now being 12-3, (it’s) their confidence,” Malone continued.
“But I (saw) just kind of a real consistency from my group from Game 1 against Minnesota through Game 4 against the Lakers. And that’s what you want this time of year.”
LeBron. AD. Durant. Booker. KAT. Edwards. Comb the beaches and ask them how “easy” the Nuggets were.
“Me and AD were just talking in the locker room and we came to the consensus this is one of the best teams, if not the best team, we’ve played together for all four years,” James told reporters after the Nuggets swept his Lakers out of the postseason.
“Just well-orchestrated, well put together. They have scoring. They have shooting. They have playmaking. They have smarts. They have length. They have depth. And one thing about their team, when you have a guy like Jokic, who as big as he is but also as cerebral as he is, you can’t really make many mistakes versus a guy like that.”
How’s this for math? Since 2000, only one other roster in NBA Playoffs history has posted a better postseason winning percentage than the Nuggets’ current .813 clip — the 2016-17 Warriors, who cruised to a 16-1 playoff record (.941) six springs ago.
Yes, the NBA’s regular season is an overlong, strange, non-sensical and often thankless slog. But there’s a reason you chase a No. 1 seed. A reason you chase home-court advantage. The Nuggets are doing what a top seed does, within a system designed to reward them for stacking wins, and now they’re going to be shamed for it?
“It’s tough to win in this league. I don’t care who you are as a player, as a coach,” former NBA guard and coach Mark Jackson said recently. “And sometimes, excuse me, you just lose to the better team. I can remember losing with Larry Brown or Larry Bird or Pat Riley or Jeff Van Gundy (as my coaches). I never felt like they didn’t do the job. Sometimes, you’ve gotta give credit to (the guys) on the other side of the floor.”
And sometimes, you’ve gotta tip your cap to a cowtown.
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