Finally, we have a title-series matchup: The Miami Heat, champions of the Eastern Conference even after getting in as only the No. 8 seed, will take on the Western Conference champion Nuggets in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
And Jimmy Butler was proven right.
"Next year, we will have enough and we’re going to be right back in the same situation, and we’re going to get it done," Butler vowed that night.The Nuggets had a flight to Boston tentatively scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, just in case they would be facing the Celtics — who would have had home-court advantage in the title series.
Malone will try to win an NBA title for the first time, and if Denver prevails he’ll become the 36th coach in league history to win a championship. Miami’s Erik Spoelstra is seeking his third title as a head coach; if he wins it, he’d join only Phil Jackson, Red Auerbach, Heat President Pat Riley, John Kundla, Gregg Popovich and Steve Kerr as three-time champion coaches.
“Nikola is still a humble, selfless person and he cares about home, he cares about family, he cares about his horses -- the guy is just who he is,” Malone said. “I couldn’t have more respect for him as a man because of that.” It was a hellish week, for certain. But the Heat got there, just the second No. 8 seed to ever make the finals.Miami has three players with championships – Udonis Haslem has been part of all three Heat titles, Kevin Love won a championship with Cleveland and Kyle Lowry got a ring with Toronto. The Nuggets have one champion on their roster; Denver’s Kentavious Caldwell-Pope got one with the Lakers at the NBA’s restart bubble in 2020 against the Heat.
He remembers how long it took him in 2019, after the Raptors won their title, to start thinking about winning his next one.
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