These Golden Nuggets May Sparkle for Years

The Denver Nuggets just kept chipping away on Monday night.  They defeated a plucky Miami Heat squad four games to one to win the NBA title and the city’s first pro basketball championship. Hundreds of thousands of fans will jam into downtown Denver at 10 AM (Mountain Time) Thursday morning to celebrate the Nuggets’ first NBA title during a parade which concludes with a victory celebration rally at the Civic Center. Enjoy it, Denver!  You have been waiting for this moment for a very long time. Denver’s professional basketball era started in 1967 as one of the founding franchises of the American Basketball Association (ABA). Nine years and zero titles later, the Denver Nuggets were then merged into the NBA in 1976.   Monday night’s Game 5 close-out win over Miami ended Denver’s lengthy 47 (or 56?) year professional basketball title drought. The Nuggets’ 94-89 victory at home in Game 5 was a very ugly game.  The inconsistent officiating crew certainly didn’t help matters.  The refs allowed both teams to push and shove each other like a pro wrestling match.  At other times, some of the players’ Academy Award-worthy flops and fakery drew a number of phantom fouls whistled by this incredibly inept officiating crew. In Game 5, the players were bad.  The refs were worse.  Denver’s home crowd remained on pins and needles throughout. Denver converted just 5 of 28 3-point shots (18%) in Monday night’s season finale.  The Nuggets made just 13 of 23 free throw attempts – which came without any Miami Heat players around to affect their shots. Miami wasn’t much better in Game 5.  Miami clanked 26 3-point attempts to go with just nine successful threes for a woeful 25.7% on its long distance shooting.  After being outrebounded 57-44 by Denver, Miami was somehow hanging on by a thread until the final minutes of Game 5. The NBA refs gifted the Heat a late chance to pull within one point with three minutes left on a highly questionable call. During a three point attempt by Jimmy Butler, the forward kicked a Denver’s Aaron Gordon in the – ouch – “nuggets” as Butler released his shot.  The referees surprised 20,000 fans and a national TV audience by whistling a foul – against Denver??? After Denver challenged the call, television replays clearly showed that Butler was the only one who made contact with another player.   Yet, the NBA referees steadfastly refused to overturn this obvious blunder. In the end, it didn’t matter.  Denver was clearly the better team. The Miami Heat came into the NBA Finals as the Eastern Conference #8 seed.  Miami’s disciplined team effort and better-than-average three point shooting (in most playoff games) powered the Heat past three consecutive favored teams.  Milwaukee, the New York Knicks, and the Boston Celtics were outcoached by Miami’s Eric Spoelstra as his team exploited the weaknesses of his opponents. The