Nikola Jokić will fight for a championship ring with Denver after “sweeping” LeBron James in the finals of the Western Conference.
Serbian basketball player Nikola Jokić qualified with Denver to the NBA finals by “sweeping” the LA Lakers! The Nuggets won the fourth game in the series (4:0) after the biggest drama so far and a big turnaround (113:111), so they will Denver is fighting for a championship ring for the first time since its existence. The series won’t start before June 1, and the opponent will almost certainly be Miami, unless Boston “turns around” their 3:0 lead.
In this game too, Nikola Jokić was a key figure for Denver, so he showed for the umpteenth time that he is the leader of his team. He registered a new triple-double, even the eighth in the playoffs, so he is at the same time also broke Wilt Chamberlain’s record that was thought to “hold forever”. No one in NBA history has ever had more triple-doubles in the playoffs than Nikola Jokic.
In the end, Jokić spent almost every second on the field (45:16) and he finished the match with 30 points, 14 rebounds and 13 assists, suffering a strange refereeing criterion that favored the Lakers. Not enough to stop him. And this time, the referees “pulled” fouls on him, they protected his direct rival Anthony Davis, while Jokić himself – got nothing. Thus, in the first half, where the ball was constantly in his hands, he made exactly zero free throws.
However, when you are a master – you are a master. Denver is 25:5 with the series thanks to the mastery of Jokić took the lead for the first time at 4:39 before the end of the third period (83:81), and in those seven and a half minutes of turnaround, Jokić recorded 10 points, nine rebounds and two assists. The Lakers came back to life once more after Somborac’s fifth personal goal with five minutes to go, and then there was the “closing of the game” under his direction. When he saw that they weren’t going to play anything for him, Jokić hit a three-pointer “from his head” and from one leg over Davis for 109:104, and then he put the point himself with a basket to make it 113:111.
Jokić had a lot of help in his eyesight Jamal Murray with 25 points, Aaron Gordon added 22, and Michael Porter, with a not so rational game, achieved 15 points and ten rebounds.. Defensive specialist Caldwell-Pope was also in double figures, scoring 13 points.
On the other hand, LeBron James played “as if it was the last time in his life”, so the match ended with 40 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists, but he scored most of his points in the first part (29). This time, Davis didn’t shine as a shooter, scoring 21 points (6/15), but he had 14 rebounds, while again very big roles were played by players who weren’t expected so much before the season. Reeves added 17 points, Schroeder 13, Hachimura 10, but the sweep was inevitable.