The Denver Nuggets are 3-1 below the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference final, in fact, they don’t have where they want to be.
But they could, in the years to come, return to the series and see a decisive catalyst to move from good-team-with-a-great-story to a great team whose story really ends in a championship.
We always – in sports, as fans, in the biggest country – big – small – at the moment, now, immediately stable. But it’s a long game – which Eric Spolstra discreetly described Wednesday night as the unpredictable power of “months of work, sweat and grind” – it usually brings out the real, lasting greatness.
And on Thursday, LeBron & Co., Denver. In the loss of 114-108, you saw it all: work ahead for Denver, sweat, grind and months, mixed with a bitter pill. If they don’t pull off a close-1 miracle comeback, they’ll wrestle for months.
In contrast to the game in, there was a lack of physicality by the Nuggets which speaks volumes about how difficult it is to gain such energy and momentum in the playoffs, and especially against teams led by LeBron.
The Lakers Turning Game 3 on glass was a 41-33 advantage in the rebounding way. There was, finally, another close-up game, in which Denver had a shot to erase the double-digit lead again – LeBron Nuggets went on to defend Phenom Jamal Murray and taught the 23-year-old a lesson about the difficulty level of making the first man win the NBA Championship.
“Heluva player,” LeBron told TNT. Postgame told about his decision to protect Murray. “He’s one of the hottest players in the bubble on us today. Just using my length, using my ath athletics and even smart. I’ve been in this for a long time, and the worst thing you can do is the great shooter on the free-throw line. Just hands on, hopefully he’ll miss a few. ”
It doesn’t seem like it anymore, but LeBron uses his experience and talents and smarts to shut down Murray – and decides as needed – and doing so successfully has a good effect on Denver’s long-term future, if not apparently close to it. And even though Denver would have won a definite victory, NBA history says they are getting something important: an education that past NBA champions need to go through with their cravings.
This is something about Hall F fame player and two-time NBA champion Isaiah Thomas, in which he and I visited this summer, “The Last Dance.” He has great faith in the lessons between losing that greatness, and seeing, first hand and learning, painfully, only good enough to be good enough.
He said, “The Lakers and the Celtics – and I give myself credit for teaching Bird and Magic so that was very important.” “That’s how we got better. We had to go to school.”
My CBS Sports headquarters teammate and former NBA champion, Avery Johnson, echoed the same sentiment when I asked him if the Spurs would play the San Antonio title in the season after the 1998 defeat to the Utah Jazz in five games in the second round. .
“The loss in 1998 was a springboard for us in 1999! We had to be tougher, smarter, more efficient, more selfless and play through the difficulties !!!,” Avery texted me. “Our excuses and poor enforcement were exposed so we decided to improve in those areas. Pop and RC did a great job of adding toughness, experience and defenders to the agency fee agency !!”
Denver wants a final berth in this postseason and an NBA Championship. Of course it does. But most teams have to go to school first, educated by heartache, close call calls, best-of-seven-series heartbeats and an up-close look of real champions.
Kyle Lowry was educated in the 2016 Eastern Conference Conference finals, and that lesson, when poet Leonard arrived in 2019, helped transform the Raptors from playoffs to incredible postseason stars.
LeBron James, the most trusted playoff player of his pay generation – and perhaps never – was made up in large part by his brutal performance and late series abandonment against the Dallas Mavericks in the 2011 NBA Finals. Dirk and Mavericks, by the way, learned a great deal from their own lessons, and ironically, from Dwayne Wade and the Miami Heat a few years ago, when they threw that team the final lead.
The history of NBA championship teams can be traced back to this, often forged by failure before progress: the Pistons were overwhelmed in the 2003 Eastern Conference final before winning the following year … Johnson’s Spurs defeated by Utah in 1988 … Michael Jordan and The Bulls lost to the Pistons in the 80’s … It puts lessons, and damage, on Magic and Bird Isaiah and Detroit.
Isaiah knows what he is saying: Sometimes, though painful, you need education.
Denver could have won that game. They shot more than 100 percent from the field, were within three with 3: ૨: 28 to go into the game and had 28 seconds left in four seconds. The game also managed to win 2. But a LeBron James shutdown on Murray, and Eddie Katari, in a very, very unlikely way, have made another comeback.
It’s a painful, painful, horrible, insomnia-induced reality for Denver.
That’s why it could prove so useful in the years to come.
Murray and Nicola are jockey stars. Michael Porter Jr., for all his inconsistencies, could be part of Big Nuggets 3 .., the propaganda that Mike Malone has done has worked, and going forward it will sound more powerful in the locker room. A team with a vision and a plan – it knows who they are, and believes what they can be – that’s all.
Especially now, as Isaiah Thomas says, they went to school at the hands of the Lakers.
