After the Nuggets eviscerated the Suns 125–100 in Game 6 on Thursday night to advance to the Western Conference finals, Denver coach Mike Malone explained the limited celebration by the team as the players left the floor.
“We weren’t satisfied winning the first-round, [and] we’re not satisfied now,” he began. “We’re not celebrating and popping champagne and throwing water over each other because our goal wasn’t to get to the Western Conference finals. I keep saying our goal is to win a championship, so we have much more work to do.”
Denver is back in the conference finals for the first time since the bubble in 2020, when the Nuggets fell to the Lakers, who eventually won the championship. Denver star Nikola Jokić is hoping things will be a little different this time around.
“Hopefully it’s going to be different,” he said. “We lost [last time]. We were in the bubble against the Lakers, that make any sense [of how unordinary that experience was]? We were injured against Golden State last year. It’s not the finals, but I’m just talking about the teams we lost to. So we have a nice opportunity to do something,” Jokić added.
Denver will face the winner of the second-round series between the Lakers and Warriors. Los Angeles leads the series 3–2 with a chance to close out the defending NBA champions in Game 6 on Friday night at Crypto.com Arena.
