Denver Nuggets take home first NBA title, beat Heat 94-89 in Game 5

DENVER (AP) —Nikola Jokic guided Denver to its first NBA title in team historyMonday night, as the Nuggets overcame dreadful shooting and a lateflurry from Miami’s Jimmy Butler to squeeze past the Heat for afrantic 94-89 victory in Game 5.

Jokic had 28points and 16 rebounds for the Nuggets, and earned NBA Finals MVPhonors — a trophy certainly more meaningful to him than the twooverall MVPs he won in 2021 and ’22.

He bailed outthe Nuggets, going 12 for 16 from the floor on a night when none ofhis teammates could find the basket. Denver missed 20 of its first22 3-point attempts and seven of its first 13 free throws, yetsomehow figured out how to close out the series on its homefloor.

Butler scoredeight straight points to help the Heat take an 87-86 lead with 2:45left after trailing by seven. He made two more free throws with1:58 remaining to help Miami regain a one-point lead. Then, BruceBrown got an offensive rebound and tip-in to give the Nuggets thelead for good.

Trailing bythree with 15 seconds left, Butler jacked up a 3, but missed it.Brown made two free throws to put the game out of reach and clinchthe title for Denver.

Butlerfinished with 21 points.

This was anugly, frenetic affair, but the aftermath was something the Nuggetsand their fans could all agree was beautiful. Denver is the home ofthe Larry O’Brien Trophy for the first time in the franchise’s 47years in the league.

“It was uglyand we couldn’t make shots, but at the end we figured it out,”Jokic said. “I am just happy we won the game.”

The Heatwere, as coach Erik Spoelstra promised, a gritty, tenacious bunch.But their shooting wasn’t great, either. Bam Adebayo had 20 for theHeat, but Miami shot 34% from the floor and 25% from 3. UntilButler went off, he was 2 for 13 for eight points.

The Heat, whosurvived a loss in the play-in tournament and became only thesecond No. 8 seed to make it to the finals, insisted they weren’tinto consolation prizes.

They playedlike they expected to win, and for a while during this game, whichwas settled more on the ground than in the air, it looked like theywould.

The Nuggets,who came in shooting 37.6% from 3 for the series, shot 18% in thisone. They committed 14 turnovers. They only went 13 for 23 from theline, though Brown and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope were 4 for 4 at theend while Denver was salting away the win.

With 2:51left in the first quarter, Jokic got his second foul and joinedAaron Gordon on the bench.

The Nuggetswere tentative on both sides of the court for the rest of the half.Somehow, after shooting 6.7% from 3 — the worst first half in thehistory of the finals (10-shot minimum) they only trailed byseven.