Nuggets sweep aside Lakers to reach first NBA finals in club’s 56-year history

Nikola Jokić is a player unlike almost anything the NBA has ever seen, and now he’s taking his Denver Nuggets somewhere they’ve never been.

Jokić had 30 points, 14 rebounds and 13 assists, and the Nuggets advanced to the NBA finals for the first time in team history Monday night, sweeping the Western Conference finals with a 113-111 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers.

Jamal Murray scored 25 points for the top-seeded Nuggets, who overcame LeBron James’ 31-point first half and a 15-point halftime deficit with a tenacious finish in Game 4 to earn their first conference title in their 47 NBA seasons.

“It’s incredible,” Murray said. “It’s a lot of fun. It’s surreal. We’re going to keep making history, that’s the thing. We’re going to keep that mindset.”

Jokić earned his eighth triple-double of the playoffs by the third quarter, breaking Wilt Chamberlain’s 1967 NBA record for triple-doubles in a single postseason. The bulky Serbian center with a point guard’s grace also led the Nuggets’ gritty defensive effort despite picking up his fifth foul midway through the fourth quarter.

Jokić didn’t leave the floor for the final 33 minutes of Game 4 – and when Denver needed a big basket, Jokić delivered that as well. He muscled past Anthony Davis for the game’s final points on a layup with 51 seconds to play.

“I think we understood what was at stake,” Denver coach Michael Malone said. “You don’t want to give a team like that (any chance). That’s LeBron James over there. The way we came out in the third quarter showed me that we have a maturity about us and an understanding of how we need to play at this stage.”

James finished with 40 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists after the highest-scoring postseason half of his career, but even