We have a date on the Nuggets’ NBA Finals rematch with the Heat

We now know when the Miami Heat will get to see the championship banner they could’ve won in 2023.

Erik Spoelstra’s squad will travel to the Mile High City on Feb. 29, 2024, to take on the Denver Nuggets in a 2023 NBA Finals rematch. It’ll be one of many premier games on Denver’s slate, which includes the first game of the NBA season and a prime Christmas showing.

Three more notable games on NBA’s 2023-24 season schedule – including the date Lakers‘ LeBron James and Suns‘ Kevin Durant face off for first time since 2018: pic.twitter.com/hcJ42DUFFc

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) August 11, 2023

Denver knocked off the Heat in just five games this summer, en route to the team’s first-ever title. For the Heat, it was another trip to the Finals, where they have been six times under Spoelstra. The 52-year-old coach was extraordinary complimentary of the Nuggets and coach Michael Malone throughout the Finals. The series was hard-fought but respectful and won’t carry the same resent that the Western Conference Finals left in the Lakers mouth. The funny thing is Nikola Jokic has only brawled with one of these —the Heat—and it’s Miami who seems to have a good back-and-forth with Denver.

The Heat have re-worked their roster quite a bit this offseason and are the leading team in the Damian Lillard sweepstakes. Most notably for Denver fans, the Heat added Nuggets bench center Thomas Bryant to their squad via free agency, so Leap Day will likely be when he gets his ring.

Last season Denver played their best stretch of basketball during the regular season from December into early March. Then they took a step after more or less locking up the west, only to speed out to a 16-4 record during the playoffs, with one of those losses coming in Game 2 of the NBA Finals to the Heat.

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