NBA basketball, Denver one step away from the title: it beats Miami again and goes 3-1 in the series

NEW YORK – One minute from the end, the teams stopped playing and the daiquiris served in the front rows disappeared in one gulp, like when you realize that behind you they’ve already turned the stools upside down on the tables and you’re the only customer left. On the ninth day of cross-challenges everything suddenly became superfluous, useless. The illusion of Miami to make another comeback, that of Jimmy Butler of finally finding the consecration, and of the above her Radmila Lolly, star of kitsch, who dreamed of being able to show her third Snow White dress of these finals. The chances of making it to game 6 and returning to play in Florida for the third time two meters from Radmila plummeted tonight in front of the overwhelming power of the Denver Nuggets, who came within a game of the NBA champion title, the first of the franchise founded in ’67. The Colorado franchise won the second straight on the road, 108-95, once again remaining in the lead, excluding the first quarter.

Denver has a great opportunity to end the series at home on Monday. Miami, which entered the playoffs from eighth, has shown that it knows how to win against all odds and that it knows how to do it away, but this match seems to have dug a furrow between the two teams and insinuated the worm of doubt in the minds of the Miami players. Nikola Jokic (23 points) and Jamal Murray (15) are proof of why Denver could aim for the title, but his teammates showed the public what it takes to reach the finish line. Because in addition to the stars, you need supporters. It is played in seven-eight. The great protagonist this time is Aaron Gordon, the third in order of importance, someone who was big in Orlando but chose to put himself in the shadow of Jokic and Murray.

It was the key to the game and these playoffs: Gordon put energy under the basket, in defense and in attack: best scorer of the evening with 27 points, repeated dunks, jumps well above the ring, offered passing lines to Jokic and Murray when shut down by Floridians’ collective defense, scored from distance at key moments. And with him the other dioscuri from Denver emerged: Bruce Brown, best sixth man of these playoffs (21 points), Michael Porter Junior (11 points) and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (7 points, including the 3-point shot in the final minutes that broke all resistance of the hosts). On the other hand, apart from Kevin Love, moving in trying to keep the team afloat for almost 35 years (12 points), the others went in fits and starts: Gabe Vincent stopped within two points, Max Struz zero, Caleb Martin at thirteen. Apart from the illusion of the first quarter (21-20 for the Heat), then Denver took over by closing up 4 (55-51) the second. In the third came the +13, confirmed in the last one, despite the initial 8-0 by the hosts which had sparked hope.

But the Heat continued to play two-three players at a time, and never attack the basket. Denver did it with five. The only shocks in the final came from the extra field: the basket ring moved from the axis by Bam Adebayo, which forced the referees to stop the game, and the illness of a woman, taken away on a stretcher to the applause of the audience . Game 5 in Denver is scheduled for Monday, a day that Americans see as the heaviest of the week. But this time, in the Colorado mining town, it could be the most exciting Monday in 56 years.