The Denver Nuggets could do something Monday night no team in the franchise's history has done before: win an NBA championship. After picking up two wins on the road to go up 3-1, the Nuggets can crown themselves NBA champions if they beat the Miami Heat in Game 5 at home on Monday.
There will surely be tons of excitement and jitters as Denver tries to close out the series. But to ensure that the Nuggets stay focused on the task at hand, head coach Michael Malone is preaching to his team to play like they're the ones in the win-or-go-home situation.
"My biggest concern going into any close-out game is human nature and fighting against that," Malone said at practice on Sunday. "You're up 3-1. Most teams, when you're up 3-1, they come up for air. They relax and they just kind of take it for granted that, oh, we're going to win this. The neat thing for us is that going back to the bubble, we've been down 3-1. We've come back and won. We know anything is possible.
"That's why my message to our team before we came down to the media and open practice was our approach has to be we are down 3-1," Malone continued. "They are desperate; we have to be more desperate. They are hungry; we have to be hungrier. There is no celebrating after Game 4. We have another game that we have to win, and the close-out game is always the hardest game."
That's the perfect mindset to have if you're the Nuggets, because we just saw in the Eastern Conference finals how difficult it is to win a close-out game. The Heat went up 3-0 against the Boston Celtics, and yet they proceeded to lose the next three games and had to pull out a Game 7 win on the road in order to advance to the NBA Finals.
Fortunately for the Nuggets, as Malone said, they've got a bit of experience playing with a 3-1 deficit hanging over their heads, and both times they came out on top. During the 2020 Orlando bubble playoffs, Denver twice faced a 3-1 deficit, against the Utah Jazz in the first round, and again in the conference semifinals against the Los Angeles Clippers. The Nuggets stormed back both times to win those series, and while only a couple players remain from that 2020 team -- Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray -- Denver has done an excellent job in not playing with its food throughout this postseason run.
The Nuggets have only lost one closeout game during the playoffs. That was Game 4 in the first round against the Minnesota Timberwolves, where they had the opportunity to get a sweep. However, Denver came out and took care of business in Game 5, and in the two rounds since they managed to close out their opponent the first opportunity they got, something that Malone pointed to as his team tries to do it once more this season.
"I'm looking forward to seeing our approach," Malone said. "We had it in Game 6 against Phoenix and Game 5 against Minnesota and Game 4 against the Lakers. My hope is [Monday] night in front of this incredible crowd and incredible environment that the players understand the opportunity in front of them and take full advantage of them."
