Thursday, May 16, 2024

Nikola Jokic records first 30-20-10 game in Finals history to lead Nuggets past Heat in Game 3



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Another night time, any other record-setting efficiency for Nikola Jokic. This time, in the NBA Finals. With 32 issues, 21 rebounds and 10 assists in the Denver Nuggets’ 109-94 win over the Miami Heat in Game 3 on Wednesday night time, Jokic become the first participant in NBA history to have a 30-point, 20-rebound, 10-assist game in the Finals. 

As anticipated, he may now not care much less. All he sought after used to be the fitting consequence, which moved the Nuggets inside of two wins of the first identify in franchise history. 

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“I mean, to be honest, not much,” Jokic mentioned, when requested what the listing way to him. “I’m just glad that we won the game. It was a big one for us just because they won in our arena, so we didn’t want to go down 2-1.”

Jokic’s occupation is suffering from notes about him attaining statistical milestones, however even for him this one is beautiful particular. There had been neatly over 100,000 NBA video games performed between the common season and playoffs, and this used to be the forty sixth time that anyone has had a 30/20/10 efficiency. Even extra shocking is that there have simplest been 5 such outings in the playoffs, and Jokic now has 3 of them, with two coming throughout this postseason. 

“Regarding Nikola, nothing he does surprises me ever,” Nuggets head trainer Michael Malone mentioned. (*3*)

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In between Games 2 and 3, a lot of the dialog used to be concerning the Heat’s talent to remove a few of Jokic’s passing game and switch him right into a scorer. Though Heat head trainer Erik Spoelstra scoffed at that perception, it used to be notable that the Nuggets misplaced regardless of 41 issues from Jokic, and moved to simply 6-9 between the common season and playoffs when he had six or fewer assists. 

There shall be no such dialog after Game 3, as Jokic did no matter he sought after all night time lengthy. He rebounded the Heat’s first pass over, assisted the Nuggets’ first basket to Jamal Murray — who had his personal 30-point triple-double — and scored their 3rd basket himself in what became out to be a becoming get started to a ancient night time. 

“You know, I’ve been with Nikola for eight and Jamal for seven years now, and we’ve had some pretty good moments, but not in the NBA Finals,” Malone mentioned. For the ones guys to make history the best way they did this night, no person has ever achieved that. I imply, that is what’s in point of fact neat about it. You get the win.

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“Our guys understood Game 2 was not who we are. It’s not who we can be, especially at this stage of the season, and they responded like they always do. That’s one thing I know about our group: When we don’t play well, we own it, and we find a way to be resilient and get back to playing Denver Nugget basketball, and that’s what we did tonight.”



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