Nuggets close out Heat in thriller to clinch NBA title

DENVER  -- The Denver Nuggets sealed their first title in franchise history on Monday, defeating the Miami Heat 94-89 to end a 47-season wait for a maiden NBA championship.

Nikola Jokic scored 28 points with 16 rebounds as the Nuggets won the best-of-seven NBA Finals 4-1 to bring the Mile High City an NBA crown as a sellout crowd roared in delight and pondered what more the young squad could achieve.

"I've got news for everybody out there. We're not satisfied with one," Nuggets coach Michael Malone said afterwards. "We want more."

The championship filled the final gap in the impressive resume of Serbian star Jokic, a two-time NBA Most Valuable Player and five-time All-Star center in his eighth NBA campaign.

Two days after countryman Novak Djokovic won the French Open for his record 23rd Grand Slam tennis crown, Jokic was named the NBA Finals MVP.

"For us he's the best ever of course," Jokic said of Djokovic. "Now we have our NBA championship. It's a really good moment to be a Serbian."

Jokic delivered on a night when the team struggled with early shooting futility but blanked Miami for more than five minutes of the fourth quarter.

"It was amazing effort by the team," Jokic said. "It was an ugly game. We couldn't make shots. But at the end we figured it out, how to defend and we scored 90 points. That's why we won. I'm just happy we won the game.

"It's good. The job is done and we can go home now."

Michael Porter Jr. added 16 points and 13 rebounds and Jamal Murray added 14 points, eight rebounds and eight assists for the Nuggets.

"We had the belief from the get-go," Murray said. "It's just great to see it through."

"To do it with this group of guys, nothing could feel better than this," Porter added.

Jimmy Butler led Miami with 21 points while Bam Adebayo added 20 and 12 rebounds.

Denver was the playoff top seed in the Western Conference while the eighth-seeded Heat, who had to win a play-in game just to reach the playoffs, lost in the finals for the third time in 10 seasons.

"One hell of a basketball team that we couldn't really find enough solutions to be able to get us over the top," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.

With their seasons on the line, players brought intensity and physical defending over the final minutes to create an electric atmosphere inside Ball Arena.

The Nuggets, down by as many as 10 points in the first half, pulled within 51-44 at half-time despite going 1-for-15 from 3-point range, the worst-ever NBA Finals shooting half from beyond the arc.

A Murray jumper gave Denver an 81-76 lead with 6:43 remaining while the Heat began the fourth quarter hitting only 2-for-14 from the floor and going scoreless for more than five minutes.

Butler, who had struggled all night, sank back-to-back 3-pointers and made three free throws after a controversial foul on Denver's Aaron Gordon was upheld on video review.

Butler and Jokic traded hoops and Butler followed with two free throws to give Miami an 89-88 lead.

Bruce Brown answered with a rebound basket to put Denver ahead 90-89.

"Those last three or four minutes felt like a scene out of a movie," Spoelstra said. "Two teams in the center of the ring throwing haymaker after haymaker.

"It will probably rank as our hardest, competitive, most active defensive game of the season, and it still fell short."

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope stole a pass by Butler and sank two clutch free throws with 24 seconds remaining to give Denver a 92-89 edge.

"For me it was all about defense," Caldwell-Pope said. "We've got to get stops. Defense was going to win us a championship. I always told them that."

Butler missed a 3-pointer, Brown grabbed a rebound for Denver and then made two free throws to seal the victory with 14 seconds remaining.

Agence France-Presse

NBA: Nuggets run winning streak to four by beating Raptors

Michael Porter Jr. scored 23 points, Nikola Jokic had 19 points and 11 rebounds, and the host Denver Nuggets beat the Toronto Raptors, 121-111, on Thursday night.

JaMychal Green scored 15 points, Facu Campazzo had 12, Shaquille Harrison and Austin Rivers scored 11 each and P.J. Dozier added 10 for Denver (42-21), which has won four in a row.

OG Anunoby scored 25 points, Kyle Lowry and Khem Birch added 20 apiece, Malachi Flynn scored 16 and Pascal Siakam finished with 11 for Toronto (26-37).

The Raptors played without guard Fred VanVleet due to a hip injury.

The Nuggets led by just two after three quarters but started to pull away against Toronto's reserves in the fourth. 

Paul Millsap scored four points and Porter had five in a 9-0 run that extended the two-point advantage to 11 at 96-85 lead.

The Raptors called a timeout, but Dozier and Green hit 3-pointers to make it 102-85. Lowry broke Toronto's drought with a 3-pointer with 7:59 left, but Green split two free throws and Lowry was called for a flagrant foul on a layup by Dozier with 7:13 left.

Dozier hit the free throw and then Green made it a six-point trip with another basket from behind the arc to put Denver ahead, 109-88.

Lowry hit another 3-pointer but the Nuggets were able to close it out.

Neither team led by more than five points in the first quarter and the biggest lead was six, by Denver, late in the second. Toronto quickly tied it at 50-all.

Campazzo made five free throws in the final minutes, and Harrison's jumper with 4.2 seconds left gave the Nuggets a 59-57 lead.

The Raptors took a 63-61 lead early in the third, and the game stayed close through most of the period. Denver went ahead, 81-75, on a steal and layup, but Yuta Watanabe and Birch made 3-pointers in an 8-2 run that tied it.

Harrison went 2-for-4 from the line and Dozier hit a layup and the Nuggets took a slim 87-85 lead heading into the fourth.

-reuters-

NBA: Nikola Jokic triple-double helps Nuggets past Lakers

Nikola Jokic had 23 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists, Jamal Murray scored 25, and the host Denver Nuggets beat the Los Angeles Lakers 122-105 on Sunday night.

Zeke Nnaji had 16 points, Facundo Campazzo scored 15 and Monte Morris and Paul Millsap had 10 each for the Nuggets.

LeBron James had 22 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists for Los Angeles, which lost forward Anthony Davis when he aggravated a right Achilles injury.

Davis left with 2:39 left in the second quarter after he bumped legs with Jokic. He stayed in to shoot free throws but left with tendonitis of the right Achilles. ESPN reported he will have an MRI done Monday.

Davis, who finished with 15 points in 14 minutes, missed two games last week with an Achilles injury.

Kyle Kuzma scored 19 and Alex Caruso 11 for the Lakers, who had their seven-game winning streak snapped.

Denver played without Gary Harris (adductor), P.J. Dozier (hamstring) and Will Barton (personal) and then lost Millsap after he was hit in the thigh on a screen by Caruso late in the second quarter.

Despite the shortened rotation the Nuggets led by 12 at halftime and increased it in the third quarter. After Marc Gasol hit a corner 3-pointer Denver went on a 9-2 run, capped by a five-point trip. Campazzo was fouled on a 3-pointer and hit the free throw and Murray hit a technical free throw to make it 97-79.

Denver led by as many as 21 in the fourth quarter and cruised to the win.

The game was tied at 33 after the first quarter and the Lakers grabbed a 49-42 lead on a three-point play by Davis midway through the second, but the Nuggets came back strong in the final 6:19 of the half.

Campazzo and Michael Porter Jr. hit 3-pointers and Jokic made four free throws in a 15-2 run that put Denver ahead 60-53. Davis then was fouled by Jokic and after hitting two foul shots gingerly walked to the locker room.

Denver then scored 10 straight points and took a 73-61 lead into the break.

-reuters-