Will Nuggets’ long layoff be a major factor in Game 1?

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DENVER — So, Nikola Jokić: It’s been nine full days since you last laced them up for an honest-to-goodness NBA game, finishing off the Los Angeles Lakers to sweep the Western Conference finals and lead the Denver Nuggets to their first NBA Finals. How’d the time off treat you?

“We going to see tomorrow,” the smiling two-time MVP said Wednesday during the Nuggets’ media availability ahead of Game 1 of the 2023 NBA Finals on Thursday night.

For most of that downtime, the Nuggets weren’t even sure who they’d be facing when the ball goes up June 1. It wasn’t until late Monday night, when the Heat bounced back from a devastating Game 6 loss to smoke the Celtics in Boston in Game 7 that Denver finally knew its opponent — and, as an added bonus, knew it would be staying in Colorado, holding home-court advantage throughout the championship round.

“It was nice to finally know who we were playing so we could speak about a lot more detail and specifics with the Miami Heat and their personnel and their coverages and their plays,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said Tuesday. “But for our guys having been off as long as we have been, I think we’re just excited to play again.”

Nikola Jokić, Aaron Gordon and the Nuggets have been practicing plenty since the West finals ended. (Photo by Andy Cross/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images)

The million-dollar question, of course: Just how well will the Nuggets play after all that time off?

“That’s the thing,” said Nuggets guard Jamal Murray, who averaged 32.5 points, 6.3 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 2.8 steals per game on 53/41/95 shooting splits against the Lakers. “We’ll take the rest, yeah, but you don’t want to pick up bad habits throughout this week. … We don’t want to get relaxed.”

Denver exited Los Angeles in one hell of a rhythm, with a 12-3 playoff record and the postseason’s No. 1 offense, scoring a scorching 121.7 points per 100 non-garbage-time possessions, according to Cleaning the Glass — a rate of offensive efficiency even higher than either the LeBron James-led 2016-17 Cavaliers team that went on a 12-1 rampage through…

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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2023-05-31 23:04:10

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