Stephen A. reacts to the Nuggets making the 2023 NBA Finals | NBA Countdown

We're collecting trophies out there in L.A. by way of Denver, en route to trying to get the big one in the NBA Finals. So what makes this team special? Nikola Jokic will say it's the guys all around him. Who's he happy for? It's Jamal Murray. But who is going to get them to the big trophy? Our countdown crew says they're looking at them right there. So on Monday night, the Nuggets accomplished two things they never had before. One of them much more important than the other. It was their first ever series sweep, which is nice. It's their first ever trip to the NBA Finals, which is obviously far more than that. Stephen A., how about the Nuggets? Special team. Special superstar Nikola Jokic. No doubt about that. When he seems to be doing nothing, he walks away with triple doubles. And they got a star in Jamal Murray, who, by the way, was anemic in the fourth quarter of this game. Had a great defensive play on LeBron at the end of the game because he had both hands on the ball. But outside of that was making mistake after mistake in the fourth quarter. But prior to that, he's been nothing short of sensational this series. I'm looking at those two guys, and when I think of championships, those two have the ingredients that it takes to deliver the trophy. Of course, Contavious Caldwell Pope can do his thing. Aaron Gordon was effective in this game. Michael Porter Jr. can hit some shots. Bruce Brown could come off the bench and do some things. But it starts and ends with Jokic and Murray. If they play the way they're capable of playing, Denver is going to win the championship. If they don't, they won't. You know, the playoffs started with people outside of basketball fanatics not really knowing about a few teams. Most notably, in whatever order you want to take them, Sacramento and Denver. And people just had not watched them, not paid close attention, except if you're a basketball fanatic. And now the Denver Nuggets have stayed with this long enough, getting through the Western Conference Finals and winning, where people know. And now I think you can be looking to see what you've got from Jokic and Murray. I mean, those two guys are elite NBA players. The question is if they win a championship. And by the way, we've seen Denver in some things. We've seen the Avalanche win. We've seen the Broncos win. It's not unprecedented that Colorado, you know, comes forward and wins a championship. The Nuggets, though, have a chance to sort of change a lot of perceptions about them, about the region they play in, about who should be watching them. So it's going to be fun going forward. And the Joker established that he's no fluke and he's the best player in basketball. And everybody needs to recognize he can do it all. He can post. He makes people around him better. He rebounds. He's very intelligent in learning how to feed the hot guy. Aaron Gordon on the cut. Let me find him. And that's what he did because a lot of people felt he wouldn't win his third straight MVP because maybe it was voter fatigue. I could tell he took that personally. And this is a clinic of how to build around a superstar and add pieces that make accentuate his weaknesses, but also highlight his greatness. They were the best team in the West basically the entirety of the season. They were at the top of the conference from Christmas on. And now they will represent the conference in the NBA finals beginning a week from Thursday.