The rise of "Jin Northwest": The NBA's most shabby division has finally ushered in a real king

Since the Charlotte Bobcats joined the NBA in 2004, became 30 teams, and the league was redivided into six divisions, the Northeast Division is the most "shabby".

The Pacific Division in the West has the Lakers and Warriors, the Southwest Division has the "Texas Top Three", the Atlantic Division in the East has the Celtics, the Southeast Division has the Miami Heat, and even the closest Central Division has LeBron's Cleveland Cavaliers.

Only they are hard to find before this year. Even they had the fewest championships of any divisional team, with only the Portland Trail Blazers (1977) and Seattle SuperSonics (1979) each winning a championship.

Until 2023, the Nuggets, dormant in the Colorado plateau, won the latest championship in a four-way submission under the leadership of Serbian talented center Nikola Jokic.

In the past three years, Jokic and the Nuggets have won two MVPs and three championships, making them the most successful teams in the league.

This is a great encouragement for all the teams who are willing to build the framework and polish their internal winning culture.

On both sides of the Pacific Ocean, the west represents the yellow sand and the cold wind, and the character forged here is so fierce and boundless that it is still rough in this era as if it has been polished by sandpaper.

There are few champions here, but there is no shortage of strong people and legends.

There have been Jazz's Utah double, Oklahoma's "Thunder Three", the enthusiastic "Wolf King" Garnett, Bill Wharton, Glider and Lillard who stood tall in the "Star Cave", Doug Mo, who played unrestrained offensive basketball on the Denver Highlands, and of course, Nicola "Teacher Covenant" who now shines more brightly in the NBA with his talent.

Since the establishment of the Northwest Division in 2004, countless wonderful moments and fascinating old and new grudges have been born here.

As the most "shabby" subdivision in the entire west, for a long time they were a dead and suppressed existence.

For example, in the period from 2005 to 2008, the Jazz could suppress Yao Mai's rockets, but they were beaten to the head by Kobe's Lakers. Anthony's Nuggets can play well in the West, but meeting the Lakers is also seeing a beaten once.

The Blazers with Brandon Roy, Ader, and Auden were once expected to be high, but due to injuries and many other reasons, they couldn't even beat Yao Ming's single-core rockets in the Wild West at their peak.

It wasn't until 2011 that the Northwest had its first "Playoff Civil War."

(1) 2011 Playoffs first-round Thunder Vs Nuggets

In the 10-11 season, the Thunder made the first half of the Western Conference with a 55-27 record and fourth place in the West. The Denver Nuggets sent Cameron Anthony to the Knicks and became a fast-paced, thick lineup, and all-conquering force under the creation of Coach George Carr.

The sopporous lineup of Ty Lawson, Gallinari, Nene, Kenyon Martin, Wilson Chandler and J.R. Smith took the West by surprise that year.

But in front of the Thunder Three Young Men who were infinitely beautiful at that time, this Nuggets still seemed to be lacking in talent. In the first game, Durant scored 41 points, in the second game, he scored 62 points, and in the third game, Ibaka scored 22 points, 16 boards and 4 big hats to take a 3-0 lead. In the end, they easily took out the Nuggets 4-1, and Durant scored another 41 points in the fifth game finale.

It was also this year that the Oklahoma City City became the true leader of the Northwest.

(2) 2018 rookie Mitchell killed the "New Thunder Big Three"

Seven years later, the Northwest ushered in a second civil war. Durant had already left the Thunder at the time, but Oklahoma City brought in two top helpers, Anthony and Paul George, for Young Master Wilson in the 17-18 season.

They can kill the "four-star warriors" that year, but they are still an unstable team whose record is determined by Young Master Wei's "mood",

At the end of the regular season, they finished fourth and fifth in the West with the Utah Jazz 48-34, once again ushering in the "Northwest Civil War."

In that series, Mitchell, who was still a rookie, showed his killer nature and maturity for the first time.

Although the Thunder took the lead at home, he scored 28 points in the second game to help his team regain home-court advantage. Back at the home of the Devils in Salt Lake City, the Jazz trio went down two games in a row to take a 3-1 lead.

In the fifth game, Wei Shao showed his true colors as a killer, with 45 points, 15 boards and 7 assists to win back one city. But in the crucial sixth game, Mitchell scored a career-high 38 points to help the Jazz knock out the Thunder 96-91 at home, making Wilder's 46 points futile. It also allowed the "Big Three" of Wilson-Melon-George to fall apart in just one season.

(3) In 2019, the Nuggets Trailblazers "four overtime" battle

In 2019, it was the turn of the Blazers. That year they were 53-29 and third in the West and the Denver Nuggets 54 against second in the West, and the two teams fought in the Western Conference semifinals.

The first two games were tied 1-1, but the third game became a famous game in history. For the first time in playoff history since the 1953 Celtics vs Syracuse Nation, a single game of four overtime!

In the end, the Blazers ended the marathon campaign with Rodney Hood's heroic play (7 points alone) in the fourth overtime.

Lillard played 58 minutes, McCollum played 60 minutes, and the Nuggets played 64 minutes and 58 seconds! Ranked fourth in history, the top three are all from the crazy battle 66 years ago!

The series ended 4-2 with the Blazers, but this magical game of four overtime was far more historic than the win-loss result!

Although they were eventually swept 4-0 by the hard-handed Warriors in the Western Conference finals, the Blazers had enough money that year. In the first round of the playoffs, they also took out Northwest opponents the Thunder.

In that round of the series, the cousin also contributed a domineering super lore, which not only sent the Blazers to the next round, but also allowed Paul George to sit on the special physique of "a man with a special background background".

(4) 2020 Murray Mitchell against the 50+

In the 2019-20 season, the Northwest made another famous contribution in the playoffs, and this time the protagonists became the Utah Jazz and the Denver Nuggets.

In the first round of the playoffs held in the park, the two teams that were not very popular hit Mars and hit the earth.

Donovan Mitchell and Jamal Murray, two of the league's new generation of young defenders, embarked on a spectacular journey.

In the first game, Mitchell scored 57 points, but the Nuggets' side was full of soldiers plus Murray's 38 points to give the Nuggets the lead

In the second game, Mitchell's 30 points plus Clarkson's 28 points on the bench equalized the score.

In Game 3, the Jazz took the lead with a 37-point victory (124-87).

In Game 4, Murray's 50 points against Mitchell's 51 points became the first pair to win 50+ at the same time after Iverson and Carter in 2001, and the Jazz won 129-127 to take a 3-1 lead.

In the fifth game, Murray 42 points, 8 boards and 8 assists continued for the Nuggets,

On the sixth occasion, Murray beat Mitchell's 44 points by another 50 points, and the Nuggets made it 3-3.

In the seventh game, the two sides played four draws, fought until the end, from a 50+ to a defensive battle, and finally the Nuggets narrowly won 80-78. Completed a 1-3 comeback.

(5) The 2022 Nuggets boss "throws into the enemy" into a laughing stock

After 2020, with the maturity of Jokic and the improvement of the team's roster, the Nuggets gradually surpassed the Jazz who could not break through the shackles and the aging Blazers and became the boss of the Northwest Division.

The Thunder have begun a new round of rotten reconstruction, and the Timberwolves continue to play the role of "NBA team favorite".

The Timberwolves, who just completed the team owner change in 2022, played another big wave, they poached the Nuggets general manager, and single-handedly dug Tim Connery, the "big butler" of Jokic, Murray, and Gary Harris, in an attempt to replicate Denver's success.

Then in order to show his excellence, this manager, known for his steady operation and precise vision, seemed to be contaminated with the "qi" of the husky, and even exchanged 4 first-round + 4 players "eight for one" chips for French Gobael, who can only contribute on the defensive end, and formed "200 million twin towers" with Downs.

However, the Timberwolves did not retreat in the 2022-23 season, and eventually stumbled into the playoffs with only the eighth record in the West, and were eliminated 1-4 in the first round.

And it was Connery's old club, Nuggets, who killed them.

We all know what happened.

After killing the Timberwolves, the Nuggets took out the Western Conference favorites Suns and Lakers all the way, allowing James, Durant, thick eyebrows and other former kings to bow down, and finally defeated the dark horse Heat 4-1 in the Finals to win the first championship trophy in team history.

And the last time the Northwest Region Five team won the championship was the Thunder's predecessor Supersonics in 1979!

The once most shabby "Northwest End" really stood up this year!

So in the new season, can Mr. Joe and Murray continue their glory and establish an unprecedented "Northwest Dynasty"?