🏀 A Total Team Effort From Denver

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Good morning, beautiful Enjoyers! Every year, it feels like the NBA Finals sneak up on us. Of course, we know they’re coming. But when they actually get here it always feels like a surprise. So let’s bask in knowing the Finals are happening now. We’re only a game in, and personally? We’re having a great time. Let’s break it all down.

Today’s Lineup

The Usual Suspects: 💪 Jokic, Murray dominate as DEN handles MIA in Game 1

Around the W with Crina ⭐️ : A preview of tonight’s full WNBA slate, including Sloot’s return to the Windy City.

Runs in the Family 🎤: Part 2️⃣ of our exclusive interview story with NBA draft prospect Pete Nance!

But first, a little Finals trivia:

Murray and Jokic Masterful as Denver Strikes First

Evidently, Jamal Murray does not respect Heat Culture. A 26-point 10-assist, six-rebound performance from Murray paced Denver all throughout a 104-93 Game 1 victory over Miami. But ‘Mal certainly didn’t do it alone. A hot start from Aaron Gordon and a cerebral, controlled performance from Nikola Jokic—in which he only took 12 shots but finished with 27/10/14—helped Denver’s cause, too.

There aren’t any adjectives left to describe Jokic, but his complete control over the pace and energy of a game is one of the best individual skills in the league that doesn’t show up in the box score.

Bam Adebayo was good for Miami (26 PTS & 13 REB), but for a majority of the night the Heat looked too much like the 30th-ranked shooting team they were during the regular season.

Every game has a storyline of its own, and they say history is written by the victors. In that case, the Nuggets should win a Pulitzer Prize for last night’s performance.

BOX SCORE

Around the W with Crina

We’ve got a full slate of games tonight in the W, and there are plenty of storylines and players to watch! Let’s take a look:

Courtney Vandersloot returns to Chicago

Considered one of the best point guards in WNBA history, Courtney Vandersloot made headlines last offseason when she left the Chicago Sky to sign with the New York Liberty. Vandersloot spent 11 years with the Sky, including leading them to a championship in 2021, but now she returns to Chicago in a different jersey. The New York Liberty (3-1) are set to face the Chicago Sky (3-2) at 6 pm ET on ionTV.

Can the Mystics get back on track?

After dropping two games in a row to the Connecticut Sun, the Mystics were able to get a close win against Chicago last week. Tonight, they face a Dallas Wings team that has gone 3-1 to start the season. Washington is hoping to stop Dallas’ momentum… and even steal some for themselves. The Dallas Wings (3-1) will play the Washington Mystics (2-2) at 7 pm ET on ionTV.

The undefeated Aces take on the Dream

The defending champs Las Vegas Aces are 4-0 to start the season, and they look just as good as ever. That being said, the Atlanta Dream are coming off of a very solid win against the Sky and are finally starting to piece it together. The Las Vegas Aces (4-0) will play the Atlanta Dream (2-2) at 8 pm ET on ionTV.

West Coast Battle: Sparks vs Mercury

After starting the season 1-2, both the LA Sparks and the Phoenix Mercury are looking to bounce back tonight. After a blowout win against the Mercury on opening night, the Sparks will head into the valley to try and take another game against Phoenix. Meanwhile, the Mercury are trying to avoid a second loss to the Sparks this season, which could be especially important considering playoff seeding. The LA Sparks (1-2) will take on the Phoenix Mercury (1-2) at 10 pm ET on ionTV.

Enjoy the Journey Part 2: Pete Nance

This is part two of our exclusive profile on NBA draft prospect Pete Nance! If you missed Wednesday’s newsletter, click here to get the full story.

When Pete Nance made the decision to transfer from Northwestern to North Carolina, he wasn’t just enrolling in one of college basketball’s finest institutions. He was joining a long lineage of hoops legends. Tar Heel alumni use the phrase “Carolina Family” to describe the strong bond between players who have passed through the program, and Nance found that to be true in every regard.

”The Carolina Family that you hear about growing up couldn’t have been more accurate,” said Nance. “When you have guys like Tyler Hansbrough and players of that caliber just in the gym every day who are totally on your side and want to do anything to help you that they possibly can, it’s an experience unlike any other.”

Add in a coaching staff filled with former college stars and NBA veterans, and it was the perfect environment for Nance to take the next step in his development.

After their national championship game appearance in 2022, UNC brought back four starters for the 2022-23 season and Nance filled the hole left by starting forward Brady Manek. You couldn’t find a preseason poll that didn’t have the Tar Heels ranked as the #1 team in the country, and for some, it seemed like anything less than bringing a 7th banner home to Chapel Hill would be a failure.

Unfortunately for Nance, he was asked to play out of position for most of the year and therefore was unable to perform to his full potential. Despite some bright spots, including a career high 28 points vs Portland and a monster 22-point, 4-block performance in UNC’s biggest win of the season over #6 Virginia, the consistent jumper he had at Northwestern eluded him at times.

Even more unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned regarding UNC’s season. They started the season 5-4 and trudged to a 20-13 finish, missing out on March Madness entirely. Many fans' passion started to morph into hate as the disappointing year went on, and it was Nance who often took the brunt of this criticism.

If you look up Pete Nance on Twitter, you begin to understand just how much resentment UNC fans had for him: “Get this scrub off my television screen.” “Pete Nance should never step foot on campus again.” “Once a Tar Heel, always a Tar Heel, except for Pete Nance.”

”It just seems that people forget that we’re human,” said Nance. “At the end of the day there’s nobody that’s harder on us than ourselves. And don’t get me wrong there are a lot of amazing people that send super supportive messages through good times and bad, but it’s sad that they get drowned out by these nasty messages that end up at the top.”

Despite a tumultuous final college season, Nance came into the 2023 Draft process with a refreshed sense of clarity and a new mindset: do what you can do, and don’t worry about the outside noise.

That refreshed mindset showed in April at the Portsmouth Invitational, an annual amateur tournament for top college seniors. Nance’s numbers didn’t exactly pop off the page, but that was almost by design.

“These types of events can be rough, because when you have everyone trying to show that they’re really good, there’s gonna be some guys that will shoot it almost every time they get it,” said Nance. “But [what] if I just try to do the things that I can control. Like how can I help this team and show I can be effective without the ball?”

Nance focused on what he does best: making smart reads with the ball in his hands, impressing multiple times as a weak side blocker, and showing off a high basketball IQ that NBA teams crave when scouting for role players.

In many ways, his play was reminiscent of this iconic quote from Alex Caruso. “A big reason guys get stuck in the G-League is because they don’t realize the position they’re trying out for. It’s like going to a job interview thinking you’re going to be the CFO of the company, and they’re looking for someone to clean the bathrooms.”

Now, just a few weeks away from the beginning of his professional basketball journey, Nance is more relaxed thanks to some important advice from his dad and brother: have fun, do what you can, and live with the results.

”Last year, I was really nervous and putting a lot of pressure on myself to perform. Now, I'm giving my full effort every day but also recognizing that this is an amazing, amazing, opportunity that’s only something to be happy and excited about.”

No matter what happens on draft night, Pete Nance is comfortable blazing his own trail, and that’s just the way he likes it.

Frozen Moments

• Would you like to see Portland select a Thompson twin at #3? 👀 

• This Max Strus Instagram post… 😅

• New Pistons coach Monty Williams got paid… how much? 🤑 

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What We’re Enjoying

Seaforth by King Krule: New King Krule album on the way—who’s ready to be sad! But in a good way! We are! The new single from the indie rock legend is considerably more upbeat and less melancholic than usual, but not at the sacrifice of his classic, low-octave crooning. Space Heavy is out in one week.

Signing Off

Thanks for reading! After hearing Pete Nance’s story, we hope you take away the importance of building up people instead of tearing them down. Remember, we’re all human at the end of the day, and that includes yourself.

Until next time,

-Crina, Quinn, and Spencer

Trivia Answer: The answer to today’s trivia is who else but Magic Johnson! Over his legendary career he dropped 20+ assists in the NBA Finals three separate times. 🔥

Happy birthday to Enjoyers Spencer, Shawn, Zeb, and Liam! We wish you the best, and thank you for your support!

PSST… to get a birthday shout out of your own, take our survey ⬇️