Nuggets about to seize a title thanks to Game 4 unsung heroes

MIAMI—Nikola Jokic carries his Denver Nuggets nearly every night, but what happens when the horse is forced away from carrying the cart?

It wasn’t a 32-21-10 from the Joker or a Jamal Murray 30-point triple-double. No, no, no. It was something much sweeter, the reason so many have fallen in love with this year’s Nuggets: team.

Denver proved once again that they’re a team around the MVP in moving one win away from the franchise’s first-ever title, thanks to a 108-95 win in Game 4 of the NBA Finals where the non-Nikolas of the Nuggets stepped up.

Denver’s coach has preached team, their executives constructed the perfect roster to play around Jokic but without him, it’s almost always been a disaster. Not in the 2023 playoffs and not on Friday night.

Jokic was called for two fouls in 20 seconds early in the fourth quarter with a dwindling lead. Michael Malone could do nothing but bench his big with five fouls. But the Heat had the ball, with building momentum and home and only down 10. The game was in the balance.

“Guys stepped up. We were up 13 going into the fourth quarter, they start off 8-0 and that coincides with Nikola picking up his fifth foul. So they came out aggressively,” the coach said. “They have us on our heels, and usually in the regular season when Nikola went out, things kind of went haywire. But I can say not just tonight but throughout these Playoffs, the non-Nikola minutes have gone really well. We called a timeout, we ran a play, Jamal knocks it down. Really well executed. The unit that was out there, they defended. The fourth quarter we held that team to 22 points.”

Stepping up the biggest was Jokic’s frontcourt mate Aaron Gordon. AG re-made his game to the nuts and bolts—hitting the weights and books to slide perfectly next Nikola. Doing it with and without the MVP, AG tallied a game-high 27 points, to go with seven rebounds and six assists. All the while he kept the Heat’s star Jimmy Butler cool.

It was the Aaron Gordon game, the one folks envisioned what he could be when he was drafted fourth overall out of Arizona in 2014. It’s the game the Nuggets traded for in 2021.

“That’s why we got him,” Murray said. “He’s a dog. He’s strong. He’s physical. He’s tough. He’s chill. He brings everybody together off the court, and he’s a selfless player. He’s been solid this whole Playoffs, this whole season, the whole time he’s been here. He’s been great.”

AG’s selfless in being a No. 4 has been one of the biggest blessings and the Nuggets were thankful to have him when they needed a No. 1 in Game 4.

“It’s really rare, it’s a blessing. It’s awesome to play with these guys. They’re so passionate about basketball and unselfish. Everyone gets love when we win. Just knowing I can be myself and it’s enough, nothing more or less.  Every night I get to just be myself.”

Prized offseason acquisitions Bruce Brown and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope stepped up huge too, with the former scoring 11 points in the fourth and the latter with a block and steal in the final period.

Brown had 21 in the game, hitting huge shot after huge shot.

“Can I say that I envisioned him scoring 11 points [in the fourth quarter] on the road in Game 4 of the Finals? I can’t say that,” Malone said. “And the one thing I know about Bruce, is he’s not afraid. We got a lot of guys that have a quiet toughness about them, and Bruce Brown is definitely one that embodies that Boston toughness that he brings to the table every night.”

KCP scored the dagger after getting two stops in a row in the post on All-Stars Butler and Bam Adebayo.

“This is four rounds now, Minnesota, Phoenix, [Lakers], and now Miami, where our bench overall has done a really nice job. You know all season long, it was like oh, the non-Nikola minutes, kind of a crapshoot. You’re watching the game like this sometimes (shielding eyes),” Malone said and motioned. “The Playoffs, our guys have—we cut our rotation down. We’re limiting who we’re playing. But the guys that are out there, they’re competing, and they’re defending. Maybe our offense may not be as beautiful as it is with Nikola, but the five guys that are out there are defending, and that’s the key to that group playing well and being able to get back in the game after they started with an 8-0 run themselves.”

For a team that doesn’t skip steps, they have one 48-minute step left to take. And alongside the horse of all horses, who is about to carry a city to their first-ever hoops championship are a bunch of players who just took on the cart and won an NBA Finals game on the road.

“If you sacrifice yourself for something bigger,” Jokic said before trailing off then later saying, “I believe in my teammates.”

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