DENVER — It was just four games in March of 2021. Four wins.
The window was that small between when Aaron Gordon joined the Nuggets in a trade from Orlando and when Jamal Murray went down with a torn ACL. It was a small sample size (although part of a stretch where Denver won 12-of-14) that foreshadowed what could happen Monday night.
For those four games when everyone was healthy in 2021, the Nuggets looked every bit the contender. Gordon fit in seamlessly from Day 1 and felt like a missing piece, and the Nuggets looked like a trendy Finals pick. They looked like a team that that season could beat the top-seeded Jazz or a dangerous Suns team (who ultimately made the Finals). Then Murray went down, and he — as well as Michael Porter Jr. with back issues — missed the 2021-22 season recovering.
The promise of those games could be fulfilled Monday night. The Denver Nuggets are just one win away from an NBA title and can close it out against the Heat on Monday.
“It was long before we made here that I thought this was going to happen, you know,” Murray said. “It’s my belief from being in the playoffs before, having the experience, seeing the team chemistry grow, having the same core my whole career. That’s when I saw it, that’s when I believe it.
“And to be here just kind of rounds it out and it shows when we were given the right circumstances and everybody’s healthy, no doubt we can do it.”
Everyone wasn’t healthy again until this season, and even then role players like Bruce Brown and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope had to be added to the mix. Even then, Murray didn’t play like he has of late all season long, it took him time to grow into trusting his knee again. But to a man, the Nuggets say they wouldn’t change a thing, that the adversity and the process had them ready when they did arrive on this stage.
“I feel really fortunate that our journey has been one of patience, one of drafting really well and developing those players, and then adding the right pieces around them,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “To your point, you add an Aaron Gordon, a KCP, a Bruce Brown, whatever it may be. Everybody does it differently.
“Some teams want to mortgage their future and go get the surefire player, the All-Star. For us, there’s never been a rushed mentality. That starts with the ownership. The Kroenke family has been phenomenal since day one allowing this thing to play itself out and not overreacting to other bumps in the road.”
That road feels almost at an end and Monday night at Ball Arena could be a coronation.
The Nuggets also know they can’t view it like that.
“I’m always telling my teammates, don’t get on the one-yard line and fumble the ball,” said Caldwell-Pope, the one guy in the Nuggets locker room with a ring (which was delayed a game in the bubble with the Lakers because Jimmy Butler dominated Game 5). “We’re here. Like I keep saying, just enjoy the moment. We’re going to come out and play as hard as we can, like we’re down 3-1. That’s the mindset we have. Continue to play great.”
One more game like that, and the dream of this title team will become their reality.
