The Nuggets finally found their title-winning formula. Will it ever happen for the Jazz?

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Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, center left, celebrates with teammates after the team won the NBA Championship with a victory over the Miami Heat in Game 5 of basketball’s NBA Finals, Monday, June 12, 2023, in Denver. | Jack Dempsey, Associated Press

Now THAT hurt.

The Denver Nuggets are NBA champions.

And the Utah Jazz still are not.

There had to be at least a little envy and jealousy among the Jazz and their fans when the Nuggets finally broke through this week and left the ranks of Teams That Have Never Won a Championship.

So, the first team to win an NBA championship from the Mountain West is not the Utah Jazz or the Phoenix Suns, who both came close. It’s the Nuggets, who dispatched the Miami Heat 4-1 in the NBA Finals.

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One down, 10 more to go. That’s the number of teams that still have not won a championship. In other words, one-third of the league.

The Forlorn Ten consist of the Jazz, Nets, Hornets, Pacers, Clippers, Grizzlies, Timberwolves, Pelicans, Magic and Suns.

At least a championship doesn’t look impossible. If the Nuggets can do it, why not the Suns? Or the Jazz? The Nuggets managed to do it in the Era of LeBron, which gifted us with the anti-competition Super Teams.

It took the Nuggets only 47 seasons in the NBA to win that title.

The Jazz have been flailing away for almost half of a century. Last season they began another rebuilding process, so ….

For decades the Nuggets looked like they’d never get off The List. During those 47 years, they qualified for the playoffs 29 times, and they failed to get past the first round 17 times. This year marked their first appearance in the NBA Finals.

The NBA has never been much for parity, so that doesn’t help. Two teams — the Celtics and Lakers — have appeared in 54 of the 77 NBA Finals, separately or together. They’ve won 34 of them. A mere four teams (counting the Warriors and Bulls) have won 47 of the 77 NBA Finals. That’s what happens when a league does not have an NFL-like hard cap.

With their title, the Nuggets escaped the list of NBA franchises who have spent nearly a half-decade or more in the league and never won a title.

The…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nuggets-finally-found-title-winning-210018020.html?src=rss

Author : Deseret News

Publish date : 2023-06-14 21:00:18

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