The Denver Nuggets met coach Michael Malone’s challenge not to let up after winning the franchise’s first NBA title.
Nikola Jokic somehow got even better with another historic season that made him the odds-on favourite to win the MVP award for the third time in four years, according to BetMGM Sportsbook.
Aaron Gordon, Michael Porter Jr. and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope all stepped up their games this season and Jamal Murray had another terrific year despite missing 23 games with various ailments.
Reggie Jackson took over as leader of the Nuggets’ second unit following Bruce Brown’s departure in free agency and he teamed with Chris Braun and Peyton Watson to provide steady – and sometimes spectacular – play during the non-Jokic minutes.
“I’m most proud of the fact that as reigning world champion we haven’t been satisfied the whole year,” Malone said. “You gotta stay hungry because we have 29 teams right behind us trying to take what we have. And you need the requisite mindset, energy, focus, discipline, urgency, whatever you want to call it, and we had it.”
The Nuggets bumped their win total by four, finishing 57-25, tied with Oklahoma City for best in the West, but the Thunder won the tiebreaker, so Denver dropped from the top seed a year ago to No. 2.
Malone found a silver lining in the slip: this time around, the Nuggets already know who their first-round opponent will be when they begin their title defence Saturday night, something they didn’t know until 48 hours before the playoffs began last year.
The team gathered at Jokic’s home Tuesday night to drink a little rakija and watch the play-in game in New Orleans that the Los Angeles Lakers won 110-106, earning a first-round matchup against the reigning champs.
“There’s a bullseye on our backs even more so now,” Malone said Wednesday. “… That was our message today: Don’t let anybody in these playoffs take what we worked so hard to get.”
Starting with LeBron James & Co.
Malone acknowledges how daunting a task it is to become the league’s first back-to-back champion since Golden State in 2018.
“The Western Conference playoffs are going to be insane,” Malone said. “Forget seeding, the numbers in front of each team, throw them out the window. There’s going to be eight really talented teams and there’s a number of teams that I wouldn’t be surprised to see coming out of the West because that’s how deep and talented it is.”
The Nuggets swept the Lakers in the Western Conference finals last year, leaving James muttering about retirement. Denver won all three matchups this season and hasn’t lost to LA since Dec. 16, 2022.
Only a championship will make Celtics happy
BOSTON – The Boston Celtics know that no one cares about everything they’ve accomplished during the regular season.
Being the only team to win 60 games? That’s cool.
Beating 10 teams by 30 or more points and becoming the first team in NBA history to have three 50-point wins in the same season? Not bad.
Clinching the Eastern Conference’s No. 1 playoff seed with 11 games remaining in the regular season? Yawn.
Bottom line, the Celtics know this franchise is judged by championships. And for the buckets of success this year’s team has had, it will mean nothing if it doesn’t end with the raising of its 18th championship banner to TD Garden’s rafters.
It’s why the only refrain has been about the unfinished business Boston’s players believe was left after last season’s conference finals when they fell behind the Miami Heat 3-0 and won three straight games, only to be blown out at home in Game 7. The Celtics were an NBA-best 37-4 at home this season, where they lost only once to an Eastern Conference opponent.
All-Star Jayson Tatum wants their approach to be different in the playoffs.
“Not take it for granted. I think in the past we just felt like coming back home we had the advantage, that we were supposed to win and maybe relax a little bit,” Tatum said. “Not necessarily take the opposite approach and feel like our back is against the wall when we come home. And maybe have some better outcomes.”
In an off-season that saw the exits of defensive stalwart Marcus Smart, along with last season’s Sixth Man of the Year Malcolm Brogdon and big man Robert Williams, Boston found itself with the additions of Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis.
“This year we’ve been organized, we’ve been consistent,” Celtics All-Star Jaylen Brown said. “The pieces that we’ve added have made contributions right away. … Things that might have haunted us in the past have kind of turned into some of our strengths.”