Both teams are smartly-built and young, and while nothing is assured - witness the ongoing maturity issues with Ja Morant - they bring the necessary ingredients for staying power. And the Memphis Grizzlies just broke the 50-win mark for the second straight year. ![]() 3 seed and first playoff appearance since 2006. The Sacramento Kings, who have never reached the NBA Finals as well, demanded and commanded respect with a breakthrough season to grab the No. I knew from the jump we could win a championship.” Throughout the whole season we proved that. “We have resiliency and that dog mentality, no matter if we’re up or down, we’ll continue to fight at a high level. “I learn a lot about this team every time we play,” said Nuggets guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who won the 2020 title with the Lakers. and they've pushed the Lakers to the brink of elimination after a deep run. The Nuggets take a 3-0 series lead with a commanding victory in L.A. Jokic has quality help with Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr., forming a core group that hasn’t reached 30 yet. ![]() They’re poised to reach the Finals because, after a two-year delay, they’re finally healthy. It’s suddenly a world, at least for now, belonging to the Nuggets, the top-seeded team with a generational talent in his prime: Two-time Kia MVP Nikola Jokic. At the start of each year, it was evident which teams would legitimately compete for West supremacy that season … and the other 25 or so that wouldn’t.Īnd now, How The West Was Won will go by a different script. Essentially, those teams enjoyed eras, or better yet, dynasties that were rarely threatened by a hostile takeover. It was an exclusive chokehold that refused to show mercy, because those teams had generational stars in their prime and team management insured longevity by building around those players. And being up 3-0 in the series, Denver can do that as soon as Monday in Los Angeles ( 8:30 ET, ESPN).įor the last 25 years, the West was ruled by three franchises: Lakers, Spurs and Warriors. ![]() Once done, that’ll deny LeBron James a fifth championship and the Lakers an 18th and introduce a new world order. That would represent a true breakthrough in this conference. This transformation would officially launch when and if the Nuggets win another game in the Western Conference Finals and take their first-ever trip to the NBA Finals. That’s what’s happening in a shifting Western Conference, where the traditional winners are sitting at home with the Lakers poised to join them, while a fresh group of contenders led by the Nuggets are elbowing their way to the top of the heap. LOS ANGELES - We’re not only witnessing the changing of the guard, but the forward and the center, too. Jamal Murray and 2-time Kia MVP Nikola Jokic look to lead Denver to its first NBA Finals appearance.
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