Winner: The Denver Nuggets and fans of elimination games
I wrote the winners and losers of the first round of this year’s playoffs a couple of weeks ago, here’s what I had to say about the Denver Nuggets:
"“The Denver Nuggets won an incredible Game 7 against the Utah Jazz, coming back in the series after being down 3-1 (just the 12th team to do that in NBA history) and their season went from a disappointing finish to a promising playoff run… “Nobody will blame them if they lose to title contenders in the Los Angeles Clippers, but before looking outside of the playoff picture for the team that’s ‘got next’, we should look at this young, tested team.”"
Then what did they do? They won Game 7 against the Clippers and after an outburst at the start of the second half, it wasn’t even close. Jokic continued to play out of his mind, becoming the fasted player in NBA history to total 600 points, 300 rebounds, and 150 assists in the fewest postseason games (27) which is faster than LeBron James, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Bill Russell and well any big name you can think of.
Patrick Beverly says that Jokic presents a lot of the same things Luka Doncic brings to the game:
"“a lot of flailing. He puts a lot of pressure on the referees to make the right calls,” per The Washington Post’s Ben Golliver."
The Denver Nuggets won another Game 7, coming back from a 3-1 series deficit once again.