Mocs News Reporting the news that matters most to UTC
Charles Mays
6/13/2023
Comm.3610.
1st Original Story
Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat are down 3 to 1 in the NBA Finals to Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets, but every game has been absolutely electrifying so far! The fifth and possibly final game is set to take place Thursday, June 15th, but Jimmy B and the Heat have been right behind the Nuggets in every game in the series and they are looking to make a stand in Thursday night’s clash. Both teams featured superstars are vying for the spot of Finals MVP, and the race is especially heated this year as Jimmy Butler interrupted Jokic’s two-year streak of winning the League MVP award. Jokic has been on an absolute tear in the Finals, averaging a triple-double in the biggest series in the league! This has never been done before as the closest thing prior was when Lebron James put up a triple-double against the heat in 2020. The Heat are putting up some impressive numbers of their own and are only the second-ever eight-seed to make it to the NBA Finals! The scores throughout the series have been relatively steady, as the Heat has scored between 93-95 in three of the four games so far, with the one outlier being their win in Game 2 with 111 to the Nuggets 108. The Nuggets have been even more predictable in their scoring as they scored between 104-109 in all four of the contests.
The Nuggets have been almost unstoppable so far, with Jokic and Jamal Murray’s chemistry reaching new thresholds in the biggest spotlight the league has to offer. Game 3 was when they really turned up the heat, “The numbers, even more so than Jokic’s 32-21-20 and Murray’s 34-10-10 showing, were ghastly.” The Heat are still putting up a major fight however, even with missing one of their stars Tyler Herro, who has still not been cleared to play again following an injury to his right hand after diving for a loose ball in Game 1 in their series against the Milwaukee Bucks. Thursday night’s matchup is sure to be an electrifying one as one team seeks to close out their series and bring the trophy home, and the other is desperate to keep their hopes alive and get the series back to their home court in Miami.
