This is for all the nostalgic Denver Nuggets fans out there. It’s been three years to the day since they ended their 47-year drought. Let’s take a look back on their run three years ago.
The 2022-2023 Nuggets were all about reinforcements. It was the return of Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. Murray had missed the end of the 2020-2021 season and all of the 2021 season due to an ACL tear. Porter Jr. suffered a season-ending lower back injury in the 2021 season and only played nine games.
Without those two, Nikola Jokic and company were beaten in five games by the eventual champs, the Golden State Warriors. It was impressive that the team made it that far with just Jokic and Aaron Gordon. Still, their ceiling looked like the second round.
The Blue Arrow made his return to the 2022-2023 season. Murray averaged 20 points on 45% shooting overall and nearly 40% from three. He made a big leap in playmaking, averaging 6.0 assists.
Prior to that year, Murray’s career high in assists per game was 4.8. Porter Jr., in his return, had no rust. He averaged 17.4 points on 49% shooting overall and 41% from three. Their return, coupled with some new additions such as Bruce Brown, helped Denver capture the one seed in the West with a 53-29 record.
An underrated aspect of the Nuggets’ playoff run is how dominant it was. The team went 16-4 and won by an average of 8.3 points per game. Since the playoffs became four games in each round, that ties for the third-best record ever.
Denver is only behind the Warriors(16-1) and the Boston Celtics(16-3) in that department. The placement could shift based on where the New York Knicks(15-3) finish by the end of the season. The opposition was not easy despite the contrary belief.
Many fans and pundits have retroactively degraded the Nuggets’ ring due to their path. They point to the seeds of the opposition. They beat two eight seeds, one seven seed, and a four seed.
Context, however, is required. The main point of getting the one seed is so that the path is easy. Denver earned the one seed, so by default, they got the eight-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves in round one and the red-hot four-seeded Phoenix Suns in round two. People forget they finished the season 8-0 after acquiring Kevin Durant.
Denver then went on to face the Los Angeles Lakers, who were ranked seventh. This Lakers team, however, revamped its roster around February and ended the season 20-8 post-All-Star break. Many people picked them over the Nuggets in the Western Conference Finals.
Finally, people discredit the finals win because the eighth-seeded Miami Heat represented the East. The same Heat team that beat the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks and second-seeded Boston Celtics. If they were so easy to beat, why didn’t the other two teams?
Denver faced the most all-star selections in that run ever, and they dominated.
Everyone knows how good Jokic is. In the 2023 playoff, he became the first-ever player to lead a single postseason in points(600), rebounds(269), and assists. He won the Western Conference Finals MVP and Finals MVP en route to being etched among the all-time greats.
The story was how good Murray was down the stretch. He was unconscious, abasing the Lakers in the WCF, averaging 32.5 points with 5.3 assists per game on 52.7% from the field and 40.5% from three. When the games were tight down the stretch, he was the difference between a close seven games and a sweep.
The duo also became the first pair of players to get a triple-double each in the NBA Finals. When it’s all said and done, they will be on the lists of greatest duos in a finals run and certainly the greatest in Nuggets history.
It’s tough to see what this team has become. Everyone had high hopes for Denver after the 2023 ring. They were still young, and it seemed like no one had figured them out.
That, however, is the modern NBA. No team has been able to find consistent success. Every team that has won a championship since 2019 has not even made it back to the finals.
For Denver in particular, it was a tough way to end the season, losing to the injury-riddled Timberwolves. That very well could have been the last time we see Murray and Jokic as a duo.
The 2023 run will always hold a special place in Denver sports. The run that lifted the 47-year curse.
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