The NBA playoffs are here, and with the playoffs comes great competition and very competitive players going head to head for the championship trophy. This brings upsets, wins, losses, and the most important series for Coloradoans was the Oklahoma City Thunder vs the Denver Nuggets. This is to determine the Western Conference finals against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
These two teams have great talent, including the top two MVP candidates: Nuggets player Nikola Jokic,a 6’11 center who averaged a triple-double during the regular season and Thunder player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, a 6’6 point guard who averaged 32.7 (PPG) points per game on a team that won 68 games this regular season.
With the Nuggets losing game seven, their season was cut short with a 32-point loss to the Thunder. Nikola Jokic with a 20-point game was not enough to back up Shai’s 35-point performance, which led to the Thunder winning the game by 32 points. The Thunder had an all-around great game with Jalen Williams scoring 24 points in game seven. This brought a devastating loss for the Nuggets, leading to the ending of their season on a blowout loss and possibly with the MVP award on the line for both Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nikola Jokic. This was not a great way to end the 50-32 season with a great season from Nikola Jokic. It is sadly over. For Colorado, this is not a great look, as just two years prior, they were the NBA champions.
Lee Arias, a big Nuggets fan, was not super mad about the elimination of the Nuggets. “Honestly, I was very confident that the Nuggets would win game seven against the Thunder, but near the end, the Nuggets had fallen apart. Although I’m disappointed that they lost by a blowout, I’m still impressed with what they accomplished as a team, and with a few key moves this off-season, the Nuggets can move back into title contention,” Arias said.
The Nuggets had a great season with a record of 50-32, securing the 4 seed in the Western Conference with talented teams like the 2-seeded Houston Rockets and the 3-seeded Los Angeles Lakers.
