Nuggets face daunting deficit, Jokic faces ignominious exit

Four NHL teams have overcome 3-0 deficits in a best-of-seven playoff series, including the 1942 Stanley Cup champion Toronto Maple Leafs. The Boston Red Sox pulled off MLB's only such comeback against the New York Yankees in 2004.

The Denver Nuggets are the 143rd NBA team to go down 3-0 in a best-of-seven playoff series and nobody's ever overcome such a daunting deficit to win four straight.

The Nuggets say their only aim is to send the series back to Phoenix with a win in Game 4 Sunday night in Denver.

“The last thing I want to see is the Phoenix Suns pushing a broom across our home court,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said Friday night after Denver's 116-102 loss to the Suns.

Malone has said all along the Nuggets could show growth this season after losing a year ago to the Lakers in the Western Conference finals.

“We have had a tremendous season, tremendous. I said going into this year you can't judge a season by the end result. ... But the one thing I don't want is for us just to go out quietly into that good night," Malone said. "I hope we show some real fight and resolve and force this series to go back to Phoenix for Game 5.”

If not, Nikola Jokic will become the first MVP to get swept in a playoff series since the league adopted the best-of-seven format for all rounds beginning in 2003.

“We just need to go out there and fight and give everything we’ve got for Game 4,” Jokic said.

Only three MVPs (Steph Curry in 2015, LeBron James in 2012 and ‘13 and Tim Duncan in 2003) have won it all since 2003 when it’s taken 16 playoff victories to raise the Larry O'Brien NBA Championship Trophy.

Curry came up just short again in 2016 when James led the Cavaliers to a Game 7 win in the NBA Finals. Since then, MVPs are just 31-24 in the playoffs with none of them even...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Nuggets-face-daunting-deficit-Jokic-faces-16243610.php