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(Denver-CO) The Denver Nuggets have punched their ticket to the Western Conference Finals by way of a, 124-110, thumping of the Dallas Mavericks to close out the semi-final series 4-1. It’s the first time since 1985 that the Nuggets have advanced to the conference finals, but their opponent is still unknown. Denver will face the winner of the Lakers/Rockets series of which the Lakers own a 3-2 lead in the series.
The energy in the Pepsi Center was palpable as the largest crowed EVER assembled to root on the Nuggets in game five. It really felt like an entire city was behind the Nuggets as they took the floor and Denver responded by taking control of this game early. And it should come as no surprise that Chauncey Billups was the steady hand in first quarter of action. Mr. Big Shot made back-to-back three’s with the Nuggets trailing, 10-4, to tie the game and the Nuggets made an 8-0 run shortly thereafter to lead, 22-14, with under four minutes remaining in the opening period. Chauncey scored eleven points, grabbed five rebounds, and handed out five assists after playing the entire first quarter and with the help of all five starters also scoring plus J.R. Smith adding a bucket the Nuggets led after one, 34-27.
What I really liked about the first quarter is how the Nuggets didn’t settle offensively. It was apparent early that Dallas wanted to bait Denver as a whole into shooting a lot of perimeter jump shots, but the Nuggets individually played to their strengths. Chauncey was 4-8 from the field including 2-4 from downtown while the rest of the starters were a combined 10-14 shooting for a combined 21 points as Denver as a whole shot 65% in the first quarter. This high percentage illustrates that the Nuggets were able to get the shots they wanted and by doing so established Denver’s dominant hold over Dallas throughout the first half.
The Nuggets extended their lead to ten points, 42-32, within the first three minutes of the second quarter and enjoyed a double figure lead for much of the remaining first half. J.R. Smith and Carmelo Anthony each connected on two three’s in the quarter and the assists began to pile up for the Nuggets. Denver notched 20 assists in the first half of game five, led by Chauncey Billups’ nine dimes, and held a 14-point lead at the break, 69-55.
A lot of credit has to be given to the Mavericks for coming out with all guns a blazing in the third quarter in one final push to try and extend this series for at least one more game back in Dallas. The Mavericks scored on five consecutive three-pointers in the first five and a half minutes of the second half to trim the Denver lead to seven, 79-72. But, after shooting just three free-throws in the entire first half the Nuggets were 10-12 from the charity stripe in third quarter alone and maintained their 14-point lead from at the half headed into the fourth.
And as we know… the Nuggets are 51-3 when heading into the fourth quarter with the lead. Actually, make that 52-3 now!
Denver did not disappoint in the money quarter despite the Mavericks twice cinching the Nuggets’ lead to a mere six points in the fourth, but on both occasions Denver had big answers. After an 11-2 run to start the fourth quarter, Dallas pulled within six, 96-90, before J.R. Smith hit a demoralizing three to push the Nuggets back out by nine. Midway though the fourth Dallas once again cut Denver’s lead down to six, but this time Carmelo Anthony provided the long distance fire power to once again extend Denver by nine and the sight of Carmelo burying yet another huge three pushed Antoine Wright over the edge. Wright was immediately whistled for a technical foul after Carmelo tickled twine and Chauncey drained the freebie to put Denver comfortably in the lead by ten and for good. After that point, the Mavericks knew their season was rapidly approaching a close and conceded by scoring just five points in the final three minutes of regulation.
The party started for the Nuggets with two monster slams by two of our brightest stars of the second round. Nene, after struggling a bit in round one against New Orleans, finished round two with a rim-rocking, one-handed slam! And after a mostly defensive effort in the second round, Kenyon Martin went upstairs to catch a beautifully thrown alley-oop by J.R. Smith to put the capper on Mark Cuban’s Mavericks.
This season has been a dream come true since Chauncey Billups returned to the Mile High City and it’s only fitting that the hometown hero came through with a dream performance to close out the semi-finals in front of his home crowd. Smooth finished tonight’s game with 28 points, 12 assists, seven rebounds, and a blocked shot in a domineering performance. Never in Nuggets history has there been a single player who can control the tempo, fast or slow, with the kind of sagacious attitude towards the game as Chauncey has in the first two rounds of this postseason. When the Nuggets need a big shot, he makes it. When the Nuggets need a big rebound, he grabs it. And when the Nuggets need a steady hand in the face of adversity, the King of Park Hill shows his championship pedigree with every pass, dribble, and decision with the ball.
It should also be noted that Chauncey Billups is going to the conference finals for the seventh consecutive postseason. Only four other players since 1970 have advanced to seven or more consecutive conference finals (Magic Johnson, Michael Cooper, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Kurt Rambis -- all Lakers) and that puts Chauncey in some very elite company with some of basketball‘s greatest winners of all-time.
And Mr. Big Shot is getting a lot of help from “Mr. Clutch”.
Carmelo Anthony continued his torrid postseason play in game five by scoring a team-high 30 points without shooting a single free-throw. ‘Melo was an economical 13-22 shooting which included 4-7 from the land of plenty and corralled five rebounds in 40 minutes of offensive brilliance.
J.R. Smith added 18 points, six assists, and five rebounds off the bench, Nene scored 17 points on 8-10 shooting, and Kenyon Martin finished with 15 points and a game-high four steals to round out five Nuggets in double figures offensively. Six Nuggets grabbed five or more rebounds as Denver won the battle of the boards 38-30 and every Nugget who played meaningful minutes dished out an assist as the Nuggets out passed the Mavericks 31-23 in the march of dimes.
I would to also like to highlight the play of Dirk Nowitzki over the duration of this series. Despite having personal issues pertaining to a girlfriend’s arrest which took place at his place of residence, Dirk played himself into elite company over five games against the Nuggets. Dirk finished tonight’s game with game-high 32 points and ten rebounds and averaged 34.4 points, 11.6 rebounds and 53.4 percent shooting from the floor for the series. He is the fifth player since the NBA/ABA merger to average 30-plus points, 10-plus rebounds and shoot 50-plus percent and lose a best-of-7 series and I take my hat off to him for an incredible effort - win or lose.
So how does it feel, Nuggets Nation? For the first time since 1985, the Denver Nuggets are in the Western Conference Finals!
Go Nuggets! 
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