Nuggets’ Malone says beating Heat will be ‘biggest challenge of our lives’

Aaron Gordonbristled at the notion the Denver Nuggets must operate the “rustversus rest” seesaw with 10 days between their Western Conferencetitle celebration in Los Angeles and the start of the NBA Finalsagainst the Miami Heat.

Rest?

“We’ve beenworking,” Gordon declared about 15 hours after the Nuggets finallylearned who they’ll have to beat to secure the franchise’s firstLarry O’Brien gold ball trophy. “It’s not like we’ve had our handsback and feet kicked up.”

Rust?

“We’ve beenlocked in, in the gym, working diligently,” Gordon insisted. “So,we feel like we’re in a good space. It’s been a good balance ofwork to rest. Happy we have home court advantage.”

Miami’s 103-84 shellackingof the Celtics in Boston inGame 7 on Monday night sent the Heat to Denver for Game 1 onThursday night. Had the Celtics been the first of 151 teams to everovercome a 3-0 deficit in a best-of-seven basketball series, theNuggets would have headed East for Games 1 and 2.

Instead, theNuggets get to stay in the Mile High City, where they’ve been sincereturning fromtheir113-111 winover the Lakers on May 22, and host a Heatteam that’s been playing every other night and won’t have much timeto acclimate to the city’s mile-high altitude.

So, yes,Gordon acknowledged, he was actually rooting for Jimmy Butler tocome to Denver this week, and not because he wanted to avoid JaysonTatum, either.

“You alwayswant to keep home court,” Gordon said. “So, first and foremost whatwe worked for all season was to get home court advantage.”

Top-seeded inthe West for the first time in franchise history, the Nuggets havewon all eight of their playoff games at Ball Arena, pushing theirleague-best home record to 42-7, while going 12-3 overall in theseplayoffs, including series clinching wins on the road against theSuns and Lakers.

The Heathaven’t won in Denver since Nov. 30, 2016, but it’s the Nuggets whoare novices on this stage.

Miami hasbeen to the Finals many times before, winning it all in 2006, 2012and 2013.

“We’ve gotthe utmost respect for them. They fight and they scrap, they haveno quit in them,” Gordon said.

The Nuggetsare one of six teams who have never won an NBA title. This is theirfirst championship series appearance since losing to Julius Ervingand the New York Nets in 1976, after whichthewonderful and wacky ABA was disbanded.

FanduelSportsbookfavors the Nuggets to win their first NBAchampionship over the Heat, who are the second No. 8 seed to makeit this far. But coach Michael Malone repeated his admonition tohis players not to pay attention to all the accolades or outsidenoise.

“Well, as Itold our team, forget the eight seed stuff,” Malone said. “Theybeat Milwaukee 4-1. That team had the most wins in the NBA thisyear. They beat Boston 4-3 and they were up 3-0, the team with Ithink the second most wins in the NBA this year.”

“So, you getto the NBA Finals, it’s not about seeding anymore,” added Malone,“and for those who are thinking that this is going to be an easyseries, I don’t even know what to say to you people.

“This isgoing to be the biggest challenge of our live. This is the NBAFinals. We’re trying to win the first NBA championship in franchisehistory, and it’s going to be the hardest thing that we’ve everdone, which is the way it should be.”