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Good morning to everyone but especially to...
THE DENVER NUGGETS
Mike Malone ripped his team's effort after Game 2. His stars responded with an unprecedented effort in Game 3.
Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray became the first teammates to have triple-doubles in the same Finals game and the first teammates to have 30-point triple-doubles in the same game -- regular season or postseason -- ever as the Nuggets took a 2-1 series lead over the Heat with a 109-94 win.
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Jokic had 32 points, 21 rebounds and 10 assists to become the first player in Finals history with a 30/20/10 game. He has more 30/20/10 playoff games (three) than the rest of the NBA combined all time (two).After a relatively quiet 18 points in Game 2, Murray had 20 by halftime and finished with 34.Christian Braun provided the boost off the bench Denver desperately needed with 15 points on 7-8 shooting. It was his first double-digit game in the playoffs.Here's our Bill Reiter on Denver's star duo.
Reiter: "It is hard to overstate just how incredible Jokic and Murray were in Game 3. Jokic's every move seemed fine-tuned for excellence, and his team fed off of everything he did. The scoring. The facilitation and how it drove the offense and filled his guys with confidence... Murray, too, was so special. Hitting brutally difficult shots. Quelling Heat runs with his own offensive genius... after Wednesday night, it's clear the Heat aren't just facing the best team in the Western Conference. They're facing two of the best players in the game, period."Honorable mentions
Not so honorable mentions
Lionel Messi is headed to Inter Miami ⚽
Getty Images
Prepare for Messi mania, Miami! After a rollercoaster last few months, which included rumors that a reunion with Barcelona or a massive contract to play in Saudi Arabia was his next step, Lionel Messi decided to join Inter Miami.
He'll officially join the team in July.
Messi needs no introduction, but here's one anyway: The 35-year-old star has won pretty much every individual and team award imaginable (including FIFA Men's Player of the Year three times and the Ballon d'Or seven times). In 2022 he finally won the World Cup.Messi debuted for Barcelona's senior team in 2004 and stayed with the Catalonians through 2021. His 672 goals with Barcelona are most ever with one club and 440 more than anyone else in Barcelona history.In 2021, Messi joined French giants PSG, and while the club won Serie 1 twice, it never reached peak potential with the star Argentine.For a while, it looked like a billion-Euro offer from Saudi Arabian side Al Hillal was going to win Messi over. Our James Benge has details on how Messi turned down the Saudi Pro League.Messi is following in the footsteps of David Beckham (the Inter Miami co-owner/president), Zlatan Imbrahimović and plenty of other stars who took their games stateside, and the hype is already overwhelming. Despite being outside the playoff race right now, Inter Miami's odds to win the title have shortened dramatically while ticket prices have soared.
But how good can they be immediately? Here's what our Chuck Booth says.
Booth: "With the team getting heavier in attack and then needing to shed players to make funds work, they'll need to be careful not to neglect the defensive side of the ball. But while they'll be shedding players, others like Sergio Busquets and Luis Suarez are targets that the team can add during the summer. ... While Messi is now 35, playmaking isn't something that dwindles quickly, as his vision is second to none in the world, let alone in MLS, and Leonardo Campana and Josef Martínez can do the running in front of him."
