DENVER — The Denver Nuggets have officially won their first NBA Championship.

To do so, they took down the Miami HEAT in 5 games and complete the series win with a 94-89 Game 5 victory.

Denver’s postseason run has been dominant, going 16-4 through four rounds of play. This was the 14th-best playoff record by an NBA champion in NBA history.

Denver got off to a 12-5 start by pushing the pace in transition and getting four (4) early points from Caldwell-Pope.

Miami, meanwhile, could not hit the broad side of the barn and missed 10-straight shots after making their first two.

Miami furiously came back on a 16-6 run, and Jokić picked up his second foul. This forced Denver coach Michael Malone to put DeAndre Jordan in, who immediately made an impact with three great contests. Porter Jr. hit two shots at the rim late to put the Nuggets behind just 24-22 at the end of the first.

The HEAT carried their rhythm from the first quarter and turned the 16-6 run into a 21-9 run. This gave Miami a 10-point lead, up 39-29, forcing a timeout from Malone at the 7:17 mark in the second quarter. His timeout worked, and Denver cut the lead down to 4 with smothering defense. Miami was able to get the lead back up to 9 points after Kyle Lowry hit two threes and Adebayo reached 18 points with multiple shots at the rim. After going just 1-of-15 from three-point range and 3-of-8 from the free-throw line, Denver entered halftime down 55-41.

 

Denver opened the half on a 13-5 run to tie the ballgame at 60 apiece as Murray started to come alive with 5 points. Neither team could find any sort of rhythm, with both squads under 41 percent shooting the quarter. But then, in what was a welcome sight for Denver, Porter Jr. hit a three-pointer after missing 20 of his previous looks from deep. Miami led 71-70 heading into the fourth quarter.

Jokić took on the scoring mantle in the fourth quarter with 6 early points. Both teams then went on a scoring drought for nearly 3 minutes until Murray hit a wide-open midrange jumper out of a pick-and-roll with Jokić. Butler had one last push in him and hit two late threes, and Caldwell-Pope hit a three in transition to keep it a 4-point game. Butler drew three free throws while fouled in the corner from three and nailed all three to make it a 1-point game with 3:21 remaining.

Butler made a floater to give Miami a 1-point lead a possession later, but then Jokić made a layup while posted up against Caleb Martin on a mismatch. Butler drew free throws once more, and Bruce Brown grabbed an offensive rebound for the stick back to bring Denver’s lead back to 1. Butler turned the ball over the next possession while passing out to a teammate on the perimeter, and Miami was forced to foul Caldwell-Pope.

KCP, the only player that had won a championship on Denver’s, calmly sunk both free throws to make it a three-point game with 24 seconds remaining. The Nuggets needed one more stop and got it when Butler missed a three-pointer, and Brown sunk two free throws to seal the game and the NBA championship for Denver. (Source: NBA)