Photo by Douglas P. DeFelice/Getty Images
The story of an underdog team that decided their own fate when faced with the ultimate challenge. The Denver Nuggets historic comeback against the Los Angeles Clippers in the 2nd round of the 2020 NBA playoffs will forever be cemented in history as a testament to the Nuggets’ grit, perseverance, and pure will to win.
Everyone loves an underdog story. Underdogs break from the norm and create drama, the real reason any of us are driven to watching sports. Underdogs are just more likeable than the guys who are supposed to win, so much more interesting. However, always steeped within the conversation of an underdog is that, inevitably, they are the underdogs for a reason. They are supposed to lose. So of course, the pre-series talks between friends always went the same way.
“Yeah, the Nuggets are exciting, but they need more years before they actually compete, no way they beat the Clippers!”
And that was the right call. Before game 1 between the Denver Nuggets and the Los Angeles Clippers, there was a clear distinction between the term “underdogs” and the Nuggets. The Nuggets weren’t just unfavored, they were less than that. They had just come off a grueling seven game series against a boisterous Utah Jazz team, while the Clippers had breezed past an exciting, yet young Dallas Mavericks. The Clippers themselves were unanimously considered to be one of the best teams in the league, and a favorite to at least go to the Western Conference Finals, if not win the entire championship. The Clippers boasted two of the top players of the game with Paul George and Kawhi Leonard, surrounded by strong veteran players. They were just too solid, too proven, too much better than the Nuggets.
That all is to say, the Nuggets did not have a single right as to why they would upset the predicted future champions. They possessed players that showed borderline superstar potential in Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic, but the respective 23 and 25-year-olds had a lot yet to prove before they could go up against the likes of players the Clippers boasted. Yes, we would have loved to see the underdog win, but the reality was that the odds were too stacked against the Nuggets. There simply was no hope.
Game 1 went as predicted. The Clippers absolutely disposed of the Nuggets hopes, crushing them with a 20 point lead. For onlookers, game 1 was an easy indication that everything that was supposed to happen, would happen. Many sports analysists, my amateur self included, called an end on the tiniest droplets of anticipation we had reserved for the underdog story. Denver’s time was up.
Game 2. Denver upset the Clippers in a big way, winning by eight points. However, the evidence still wasn’t there. Me and my friends thought,
“It’s just an off day for the Clippers. It doesn’t matter, Clippers in five.”
“Good luck seeing another subpar performance from George or Kawhi. It’s still over.”
And we weren’t wrong. Games 3 and 4 were both statement pieces from the Clippers, solidifying the consensus that the Clippers were simply too strong and ruling out any dash of hope the Nuggets had left.
Just to clarify the absolutely gigantic mountain the Nuggets would have to climb, they had to somehow win four straight games in a row against the consensus number 1 team in the NBA. The Clippers had a more experienced coach, more experienced and straight up better role players, and proven, all-world superstars that had more rest than the Nuggets. If there was no hope before, history was basically already written even before the presumptuous final game 5.
Game 5 proved to follow the unanimous prediction. Los Angeles took a double digit lead before the half. Denver was struggling to take their last breaths. Their backs were cornered onto an impossible deficit, while in front of them, a pack of wild dogs. The narrative that was written far before the game even started began to unfold into reality, and all the Nuggets had left to do was to turn their backs concede their fight. High-fives all around, let’s go home and better luck next year.
“No.”
There are very few rare moments that occur in sports history. Rare moments where, in spite of immense pressure and odds, an individual or team decides that no matter what the narrative says, no matter what is supposed to be and what everyone thinks, only they themselves will continue forward and write a new page for themselves. Pure, unmitigated, unprecedented, will. The will to keep pushing on. The will to fight a pack of wild dogs while ignoring the mountain behind them. To never give up under any circumstances, to ignore what is supposed to be and carry out what you want, what you will to happen. When Denver was down going into that 3rd quarter, that moment dawned with the Nuggets. They decided that they weren’t going to take and rest easy with the narrative, or the statistics, or even common sense. They decided to become something scarier than a pack of wild dogs, to wade into impossibility relying on nothing but their own guts and determination.
Denver became a Beast.
Deep three from Murray. A floater by Jokic. A layup from Paul Millsap, a rotation play that hit Jerami Grant, Millsap, Jokic, and then finally Murray to hit the dagger three. The Nuggets found hope, and grasped it.
Game 6 was more of the same. Down at the half, the Nuggets once again rallied in the face of adversity. Especially the stars, Jokic and Murray, ascended to another level. Nuggets win.
Game 7, Denver were playing with house money. They had nothing to lose, because they didn’t plan on losing that day. They had successfully demolished the Clippers morale, and alongside it any fight the Clippers had. Nuggets were dominant all game, and eventually with the final beat of the buzzer the Nuggets prevailed with a 20-plus point lead.
The Nuggets shouldn’t have won. The Nuggets were not a better team, and you could not possibly argue they were the better team. Everybody but Denver had already written the outcome because nobody bets on money falling from the sky. Denver’s victory was, simply put, an impossibility. An impossibility that could only be proven into existence because of one wildcard that no one can predict: the will of certain individuals that deletes the possibility of failure. The will to level up when the ultimate forces are pushing you down. The will to win.
Tenny Kim 