#Nikola Jokic, Denver Nuggets survive Miami Heat to secure franchise’s first NBA championship

In a rock-fight of a Game 5, the Denver Nuggets reached the NBA mountaintop from the foothills of the Rockies, winning their first-ever championship and setting Nikola Jokic’s legacy as an all-timer in stone.

Battling foul trouble and a Miami Heat team that refused to die, Jokic amassed 28 points, 16 rebounds and four assists in a 94-89 victory in front of the 19,537 raucous fans filling Ball Arena. Jokic received all votes in the Finals MVP voting, concluding a historic playoff run for the 7-foot Serbian and his Denver teammates.

The Nuggets led by seven late in the fourth quarter, and the Heat were on a five-minute scoring drought, when Jimmy Butler scored 13 straight points for his team, raising the eighth-seeded zombies from the grave and taking an 89-88 lead into the final two minutes. A Bruce Brown put-back returned the lead to Denver, and Butler’s turnover with 27.4 seconds left gifted the Nuggets a chance to finally lay Miami to rest. The Nuggets, 9-for-19 from the line at the time, made four straight free throws down the stretch to clinch.

The Heat forced four turnovers in the opening minutes but could not capitalize, starting 3-for-16 from the field. Nuggets coach Michael Malone called for a timeout, trying to settle the nerves of a team playing before its bloodthirsty home crowd, and his players responded (again). Jamal Murray and Jeff Green sandwiched dunks — one on a drive, the other off a back-cut — around a smooth jumper from Michael Porter Jr. Denver moved the ball as quickly as it pushed the pace, and an avalanche threatened Miami.

Then, four minutes after Aaron Gordon committed his second foul, Jokic joined him on the bench with two of his own at the 2:51 mark of the first quarter. Adebayo took that at his cue to attack Green as a small-ball center, finishing consecutive and-ones. His 14 first-quarter points flipped the game in Miami’s favor, 22-18.

In a slog of a second quarter muddied by 10 personal fouls almost evenly split between both teams, the Heat were in their element. After starting 1-for-9 in the paint, they found success attacking the basket, first with Jokic on the bench, and then as he actively avoided committing a third foul. They got eight points from Butler, four more from Adebayo, all either at the rim or free-throw line, and 15 points in the frame from the bench, including two Kyle Lowry 3-pointers and a third by Duncan Robinson, to build a lead as large as 10.

Porter’s nine points and eight rebounds in the first half kept the Nuggets from a worse deficit, as did 34 points in the paint. Miami’s 51-44 lead at the break felt light, given Denver’s 1-for-15 shooting from deep.

So, the Nuggets gave the Heat a heavy dose of Jokic early in the third. He totaled eight points and five rebounds in the first five minutes of the quarter, and Murray snapped Denver’s streak of 13 straight missed 3s, connecting from the corner in transition to even the score, 60-60. Porter broke his own 3-for-26 slump in the Finals, drilling a 3 in transition and giving the Nuggets their first lead, 69-66, since the first quarter.

Another Lowry triple helped the Heat carry a 71-70 edge into the final frame, but the Nuggets emerged with the taste of a title on their tired tongues. Murray found Jokic for a layup out of the gate, and then found the net on a second straight 3-pointer. Denver led, 75-71, and Miami needed a timeout. Butler was 2-for-12 in the game, Adebayo 1-for-5 since halftime, and the Nuggets’ defense was strangling the Heat on a string.