Cancel that flight plan, Denver. Turns out, the NBA Finals are starting in the Mile High City after all.
And Jimmy Butler was proven right.
Finally, we have a title-series match-up: The Miami Heat, champions of the Eastern Conference even after getting in as only the No. 8 seed, will take on the Western Conference champion Nuggets in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. The series starts in Denver on Friday NZT.
The Heat got there by winning Game 7 of the East title series in Boston today. It came one year to the day after the Celtics won a Game 7 on Miami's floor to win the East title a year ago.
"Next year, we will have enough and we’re going to be right back in the same situation, and we’re going to get it done," Butler vowed that night.
The Heat made those words prophetic.
The Nuggets had a flight to Boston tentatively scheduled for tomorrow, just in case they would be facing the Celtics — who would have had home-court advantage in the title series.
But the Heat had other ideas, won the deciding game to avoid becoming the first team in NBA history to fall after claiming a 3-0 series lead, and Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets now await.
The Heat are in the finals for the seventh time and seeking their fourth championship; the Nuggets are in the finals for the first time in franchise history.
“When we wake up tomorrow morning, we know who we’re playing,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said Monday, a few hours before the Celtics and Heat tipped off in Game 7.
“We know who we’re preparing for and we can kind of turn the page and really focus in on that. The Eastern Conference finals has been a hell of a series.”
Malone will try to win an NBA title for the first time, and if Denver prevails he’ll become the 36th coach in league history to win a championship.
Miami’s Erik Spoelstra is seeking his third title as a head coach; if he wins it, he’d join only Phil Jackson, Red Auerbach, Heat President Pat Riley, John Kundla, Gregg Popovich and Steve Kerr as three-time champion coaches.
Denver hasn’t faced any real trouble yet in these playoffs. The Nuggets are 12-3 in the playoffs, winners of their last six games — and grabbed control of their matchups against Minnesota in Round 1, Phoenix in Round 2 and the Lakers in the West finals right away.