Day: May 23, 2023

The Denver Nuggets have advanced to the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history with their 113-111 Game 4 win over the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Nuggets overcame a 15-point halftime deficit by outscoring the Lakers 36-16 to take control of the game. Denver then withstood a late rally from the Lakers and suffocated LeBron James on the final play of the game.

Nikola Jokic led the Nuggets with 30 points, 14 rebounds and 13 assists. Jokic was also named Western Conference Finals MVP.

James had 40 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists in a losing effort for the Lakers. James scored 30 points in the first half.

The Nuggets will play the winner of the Eastern Conference Finals with the Miami Heat currently up 3-0 over the Boston Celtics. The Finals will begin on Thursday, June 1st.

The Boston Celtics face a 3-0 series deficit in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Miami Heat despite coming into the series as heavy favorites.

“This locker room never got over Ime Udoka’s dismissal as head coach,” said Adrian Wojnarowski on ESPN on Monday when trying to explain why the Celtics are on the brink of elimination. “These players did not accept the organization’s reasoning for doing it. They thought it was a wild overreaction. There were a lot of the people on the outside thought it was an overreaction. That it was an HR matter.

“I think for this team and talking to the management, they never got any more answers than the public was getting on this. This doesn’t mean they haven’t accepted Joe Mazzulla as head coach, but this is a team that really believed in Ime Udoka and had a strong connection with him.

“I think there were a couple instances this season where a lot of that angst resurfaced. First, when the Brooklyn Nets nearly hired Udoka as head coach and then when the Rockets did. Certainly those were factors.”

Wojnarowski also suggested the Celtics possibly made a mistake in not hiring a more experienced assistant coach under Mazzulla.