DENVER: A Denver Nuggets squad looking to prove their championship quality and an upstart Miami Heat lineup that made defying the odds a trademark are on an NBA Finals collision course.
Two-time NBA Most Valuable Player Nikola Jokic of Serbia leads the Western Conference top seed Nuggets against sharpshooter Jimmy Butler and the Heat, who needed a play-in victory just to grab an eighth seed in the Eastern Conference.
The best-of-seven championship series begins Thursday at Denver. It’s the Nuggets’ first trip to the NBA Finals since making their league debut in 1976.
Denver have won hard-earned respect after 46 seasons of futility, this year as a playoff top seed for the first time. “Our goal is to win a championship, so we have much more work to do,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “Seems like for years now, some dusty old cowtown in the Rocky Mountains, the little respect that we get.