No matter who ends up prevailing in the Miami Heat-Boston Celtics Eastern Conference Finals series, the Denver Nuggets will be the ultimate winners.
The Heat-Celtics series was extended again this weekend by an absurd Derrick White buzzer-beater that won Game 6 for the Celtics on Saturday (video here). The miracle shot forced a decisive Game 7 between the two teams in Boston on Monday.
For the Nuggets, who already clinched their spot in the NBA Finals nearly a week ago with a sweep of the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Finals, they went viral for their tweet about the Heat-Celtics battle. Denver posted a picture of swingman Bruce Brown sitting with the home crowd at Ball Arena. The caption in the tweet read, “Still waiting.”
Still waiting pic.twitter.com/57bIntvtnP
— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) May 28, 2023
The Finals tip off on June 1, which means that the Nuggets will have had nine full days of rest heading into them. By contrast, the winner of the Heat-Celtics series will now be getting a mere two full days of rest between series. That is very little time to recharge after a seven-game slugfest and even less time to properly acclimate to the high altitude in Denver (though the Celtics would hold homecourt advantage over the Nuggets if they were to advance).
Denver took care of business right away in their series and have very much earned their major rest advantage. But they should be wary of potentially coming out rusty and disorganized in Game 1 against an opponent who is already locked in and ready to battle, especially given the history in play.
