The chants of “MVP, MVP, MVP,” echoed throughout Ball Arena in Denver on Friday night when Nikola Jokic raised the NBA’s Most Valuable Player trophy to the delight of some 18,000 fans! Jokic was named the NBA’s 2020-21 MVP, making him the first player in Nuggets history to receive this honor and he became the lowest draft pick (Pick #41 in 2014) to become league MVP. 

After dropping the first two games of this series against Phoenix on the road, Denver returned home for Game 3 to try and get themselves back into this series. The Nuggets came out of the gates slow, trailing by 10 after one quarter, but in the second quarter of play, Denver started to shift the momentum back in their favor and they pulled within 4 points at halftime. 

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However, Phoenix came out hot in the second-half, like they have all series long, and their offensive onslaught led by Chris Paul and Devin Booker was too much for the Nuggets to overcome. The Suns won Game 3 against the Nuggets 116-102 to take a dominant 3-0 series lead, making things almost impossible for Denver to come back in this series. 

Last year, the Nuggets had their backs up against the wall in back-to-back series, trailing 3-1 to the Utah Jazz in the first-round of the playoffs and then trailing 3-1 to the Los Angeles Clippers in the Western Conference Semifinals, but they ultimately found a way to win both of these series. 

There is definitely a fight within this team, but the one key aspect of their team that they had last year in the playoffs and do not have this year is the presence of Jamal Murray. The 24-year-old guard is an All-Star-like player for the Nuggets next to Nikola Jokic and without him against a team as good as the Phoenix Suns, it seems hard to believe that the Nuggets have a little bit of last year’s “magic” from Disney/Orlando left in them. 

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Nikola Jokic has been great for Denver, but ultimately, this Suns team looks like the clear-cut “team-to-beat” in the Western Conference right now and they are playing the best basketball they have all season long. This series seems like it is just about over and it looks like Phoenix will be advancing to the Western Conference Finals for the first-time since 2010, but is there anything the Nuggets can do in order to save themselves the embarrassment of getting swept on their home court? 

Let’s take a look at three things the Denver Nuggets need to do in order to avoid getting swept in the Western Conference Semifinals by the Phoenix Suns and at least force a Game 5 in Phoenix.