When the 2023 NBA Finals started, the Denver Nuggets were the overwhelming favorites to put away the Miami Heat and win their first-ever world championship.
They’re the more talented team, they have a huge advantage in the middle in center Nikola Jokic, a two-time MVP, and they also held the home-court advantage.
Denver’s home-court advantage isn’t just about their fans, but perhaps even more so about the altitude of the Rocky Mountains, which poses a stiff challenge to just about every opposing team.
But after they won Game 2, 111-108, to tie the series at one win apiece, the Heat seemed to mock that altitude on Twitter.
5280 feet and still climbing ⛰ pic.twitter.com/pjD7L7oMr1
— Miami HEAT (@MiamiHEAT) June 5, 2023
Since there is less oxygen at high altitudes, players on other teams tend to experience their bodies screaming for air pretty early in games played in Denver.
That lack of oxygen is even more pronounced because the Nuggets have become an excellent fast-breaking team this season.
They got a decent number of transition buckets in the first half of Game 2, as they led by as many as 15 points and were still up by six at halftime.
They still led by eight at the end of three quarters of play, but it all evaporated in the fourth quarter, as the Heat seemingly couldn’t miss from downtown.
Miami made an unreal 48.6 percent of their 3-point attempts for the game and outscored Denver by 11 in the decisive final period to steal home-court advantage away from the top-seeded team in the Western Conference.
With the next two games in South Florida, the Finals are suddenly looking like a competitive series.
NEXT: Surprise Heat Star Holds An Elite Finals Mark
