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Nuggets Haters Roasted on Twitter After Denver Beats the Heat in Game One

By Aaronn Sittig
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The Denver Nuggets‘ 104-93 victory over the Miami Heat in game one of the 2023 NBA finals was richly satisfying for Nugs Nation on many, many levels. But the win tasted especially sweet in light of predictions of a Heat triumph by so many high-profile sports pundits.

The phenomenon of downgrading Denver was exemplified by ESPN, which has been actively rooting against the Nuggets for ratings reasons. But it extends beyond the network essentially hosting the championship (the games are being broadcast on its sibling affiliate, ABC) to all manner of mega-trolls masquerading as experts.

Kendrick Perkins and Nick Wright, we’re talking about you.

Big Perk, as he’s known, spent around a decade and a half in the league, with his 2003-2011 stint as a member of the Boston Celtics, with whom he won a championship in 2008, by far his most distinguished period. So he comes by his East Coast bias naturally, but since joining ESPN following the 2018 end of his playing career, he’s gained a reputation for blunt, nuance-free takes in which he attempts to be purposefully provocative — as when he accused Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic of “stat-padding” in order to enhance his odds of taking home a third consecutive Most Valuable Player award.

This assertion was moronic, in part because Jokic didn’t give a tenth of a damn if he was named MVP again, while Perkins’s fave, Philadelphia 76er Joel Embiid, has been more or less begging for the bauble year after year, and deep down, Perkins seems to know it. On an episode of ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption that aired prior to the game, he called Jokic the best player in the world right now — but then quickly predicted that the Heat would triumph in the series opener because of leader Jimmy Butler’s prowess in the playoffs and the fact that Miami has taken openers on the road three times during its current post-season run.

Another salient truth — Denver hasn’t lost at home since the playoffs started — didn’t enter into Perkins’s analysis, but that’s no surprise. He picked Denver to lose to the Los Angeles Lakers, too.

Wright, for his part, has made ripping Jokic a big part of his brand on FS1, Fox Sports’s answer to ESPN. He’s called him the weakest MVP since Steve Nash, and takes advantage of every opportunity to suggest that his awesome skill set is made of Tinker Toys.

Problem is, Jokic keeps proving Wright wrong — and he did so again last night. He eschewed shooting for most of the contest, choosing instead to slice up the Heat’s vaunted defense with seeing-eye passes on par with those once hurled by Magic Johnson. He wound up with one of the quietest triple doubles ever — 27 points, ten rebounds and fourteen assists — by consciously putting his teammates in the spotlight. This approach resulted in an incredibly balanced attack marked by Jamal Murray’s 26 points, plus sixteen from Aaron Gordon and fourteen from Michael Porter Jr.

Yes, the Nuggets gave the Heat hope in the fourth quarter, allowing Butler and company to halve Denver’s 22-point lead by the buzzer. But there was never a sense that the Nugs would actually lose.

Future games likely won’t be this easy. But Denver clearly looked like the best team, and everyone from former Nuggets coach George Karl to casual fans let Perkins, Wright and PTI‘s Michael Wilbon (another Nuggets doubter, although he’s picked them to win) hear all about it.

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Aaronn Sittig
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