8:30 p.m. (if nec.) – Sport Blog

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NBA Finals 2023: How the Denver Nuggets’ altitude advantage takes air out of opposing teams

WITH THE LIGHTS dimmed for the introduction of the starting lineups, Ball Arena directs everyone’s attention to the big screen for an urgent message. “ATTENTION, WARNING TO VISITORS.” Denver Nuggets public address announcer Kyle Speller proceeds to deliver a grim caution to the Los Angeles Lakers and their fans before the start of the Western […]

NBA Finals 2023: A one-finger salute and the deep ties that bond Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat

AS JIMMY BUTLER and Max Strus prepare for each Miami Heat game in the 2023 NBA Finals, they have a ritual. It’s one that Butler has gone out of his way to cultivate with all his teammates. Sometimes, it’s a handshake, sometimes it’s a series of handshakes — but in Strus’ case, it’s just one […]

NBA Finals 2023: What Kyle Lowry and Jimmy Butler’s grouchy friendship means to the Heat

At 37, Lowry is in his 18th NBA season. He’s on his fourth team. He’s a six-time All-Star and an NBA champion. His Heat teammates and coaches believe he will be a Hall of Famer. And in his second full season in Miami, he desperately wants to win another title — for the Heat, but […]

The year Jimmy Buckets was born

Then everything changed. It was 2009. Butler was a junior at Marquette when Darius Johnson-Odom arrived. Almost immediately, Butler noticed the way assistant coach David “Aki” Collins bonded with the sophomore. Collins called him “DJ,” and he went from pushing DJ hard to putting his arm around the new kid when he struggled. It was […]

NBA Finals 2023: Jokic and Murray’s chemistry was on full display in Game 3

Recently, footage of Denver Nuggets stars Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic playing together at the 2014 Nike Hoops Summit in Portland, Oregon, made its way around Instagram. Neither of them were the featured stars in that game — big men Karl-Anthony Towns and Jahlil Okafor were. But Murray and Jokic were paired together on the […]

NBA Finals 2023: How Aaron Gordon turned into a perfect fit alongside Denver’s offensive hierarchy

But in all honesty, the Nuggets general manager says, they were just looking to replace the production they’d lost when forward Jerami Grant left in free agency in 2020. “We didn’t realize how talented he was,” Booth told ESPN after Gordon scored a game-high 27 points in the Nuggets’ 108-95 win against the Miami Heat […]

NBA Finals 2023: How Jimmy Butler and the Heat figured things out ahead of Game 2

But when it came down to it, Butler did not run off to an escape room. He escaped to the gym instead, joined by his longtime trainer Chris Brickley. “He just likes figuring things out,” Brickley told ESPN. “When he’s making those short shots, everything is different. So we worked on it.” Butler spent 30 […]