24-year-old Denver Nuggets star receives large reward from Nikola Jokic after Sport 7 win.
Regardless of coping with the firing of head coach Michael Malone days earlier than the 2025 NBA playoffs, the Denver Nuggets didn’t permit it to affect their focus.
It was confirmed as they got here out on prime of the Los Angeles Clippers after battling it out in a ugly seven-game opening-round collection.
Whereas the likes of Russell Westbrook and Jamal Murray performed their roles effectively all through the collection, group captain Nikola Jokic ensured to provide one other key Nuggets participant his flowers.
Within the essential Sport 7, six Nuggets gamers completed the sport in double-digit scoring, together with third-year guard Christian Braun.
Whereas Braun’s scoring actually helped the Nuggets advance to the second spherical, Jokic praised the 24-year-old for one in every of his underrated qualities.
“A winner, we all know that he’s. A 50-50 participant, the ball is at all times in his arms, in all of the soiled, all of the small performs you need guys to get,” Jokic mentioned.
He added: “Choice making a lot better, capturing the ball… We imagine in him. He’s aggressive, he’s annoying, he is aware of what to do, and he accepts the position as a result of he’s a winner like I mentioned.”
To place issues into perspective, Braun shot greater than 50% for the third straight sport and it’s evident that he has labored on his capturing proportion.
Though Braun was a member of the Nuggets’ 2023 NBA Championship-winning roster, he was nonetheless a rookie on the time.
Whereas Braun had a strong sophomore season as effectively, he actually took a leap to the following degree this season. Braun averaged 15.4 factors, 5.2 rebounds, and a pair of.6 assists per sport whereas capturing 58.0% from the sector and 39.7% from the three-point line.
Braun’s numbers have considerably dipped within the playoffs, however he nonetheless contributed 12.6 factors, 6.0 rebounds, and a pair of.4 assists per sport within the first spherical.
It’s evident that Braun will play a key position if the Nuggets wish to elevate the illustrious Larry O’Brien trophy on the finish of the postseason.
