Michael Porter Jr.’s double-double more than offsets poor shooting night: “I could have scored zero points, I don’t care. We won a championship.” 

Michael Porter Jr. knew he’d broken through a barrier, and even still he couldn’t quite bring himself to fully get past it.

Hat backward, champagne bottle as his postgame podium companion, Porter reveled in his newfound title as a world champion and couldn’t quite shake the lifelong mentality of a scorer.

“I didn’t think I really played that good of a game,” he said.

A funny thing about that: Porter played exactly the kind of game Denver needed from him in a grind-it-out, 84-89 Game 5 clincher against Miami.

He brought energy from the start, scoring seven points and pulling down seven rebounds in the first quarter alone as the Nuggets played like a team straining too hard against history in pursuit of their first title.

He sparked Denver in transition in the third quarter, finding Jamal Murray for a rare 3-pointer — the Nuggets made just 5-of-28 from beyond the arc — and then finishing himself on a rollicking, between-the-legs sojourn through traffic to the hoop.

The final line: 16 points on 7-of-17 shooting, 13 rebounds and three assists in 33 minutes, 37 seconds of playing time.

“It’s just a sticktoitivness,” head coach Michael Malone said of Porter’s outing. “Staying with it. Not feeling sorry for yourselves. … I hate people that feel sorry for themselves, and Michael didn’t. ‘I’m not making shots.’ So what? Find other ways.”

A year ago, the young wing might have retreated into a shell. Heck, in Game 2 of this series he found himself watching the closing minutes because he allowed a series of missed shots to impact his energy level in other departments.

Not on this night.

“It’s a maturation, a continued maturation,” Malone said of Porter’s clinching performance and overall up-and-down NBA Finals. “We all know that Michael didn’t shoot the ball as well as we know he can, but that’s going to happen at times. I think this was a great experience for him because I think he learned there’s no specialists allowed on this team.”

No specialists allowed, so Porter buzzed around the court and pulled down boards and buried the fact that he finished the Finals 3-of-28 from 3-point range.

“My jumper was broke all series,” he allowed.

This version of Porter is so tantalizing, in fact, that Malone couldn’t help but look through the confetti, past the assured Tuesday hangover and toward a future that includes a Michael Porter Jr. that played through struggle on the biggest stage of his career instead of backing down from the challenge.

“I think it’s important for everybody to understand that Michael’s a young player,” Malone said. “He missed his rookie season and played nine games last year. … I know next time he’s on this stage he’s only going to be better for having gone through this experience.”