For all the fretting about Denver now, these guys had Minnesota down 20 in Game 7 at home. They would have been favorites over the Mavericks in the conference finals. A potential Finals against Boston loomed as a titanic matchup. The Celtics would have probably been slight favorites, with home court, but they had a healthy respect for Denver. The Nuggets swept Boston in the regular season, winning two nail-biters.
"The larger motivation matters," Booth said. "We had so many guys with chips on their shoulders [in 2022-23]. We had Jamal and Michael coming back from injury. Nikola already had a lot of individual accolades, but he's about team success. Last year was a little more challenging because of that hangover from winning it."
by LamboJoeRecs
