Mateo’s Hoop Diary: Nuggets storm the Kaseya Center and take a 2-1 lead in the Finals

Through three games in the Finals, the road squad has won twice, shooting down any misguided speculation of a boring series. One coach has already burned his troops for a good sound bite, and the other has unfairly lost his cool after hearing a fair question. As Charles Dickens wrote in A Tale of Two Cities, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” assuredly at different moments for both teams.

Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokić got anything they wanted for the Nuggets, but the match was tied after a quarter. Their two-man actions shredded the Heat’s paint protections, but the hosts held Denver to two of 11 made looks outside the lane early.

Murray was quick on the draw after wrapping around a screen. He torched drop coverage and beat his man off the dribble to get to the teeth of the zone. Miami also tried trapping up top, but he got the ball out in time and involved again.

The Joker was indefensible, hitting turnaround hooks in the lane and pop shots after screening for a teammate. Through the first half, he accumulated 14 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists.

The Heat’s 2-2-1 press was the only scheme to give the Nuggets problems in the first half because it ate away at the clock and prevented ball movement. Man-to-man coverage and the zone shattered as the game continued.

On the other side, Max Strus tallied four dimes in five minutes. Jimmy Butler began the evening aggressively going at the low man when turning past a pick. When hunting Murray, the Nuggets sent a double at JB, but he dissected the help on multiple occasions.

Bam Adebayo kept challenging the Joker, but he missed three close-range shots after getting a step on his defender. On other attempts, Jokić created misses at the elbow against the jab-step and pull-up jumper, plus caused an error on Adebayo’s fastbreak drive.

At halftime, the Heat was down 48-53. Thirty of Denver’s first-half points came in the paint on 15 of 23 attempts. It was surprising that Haywood Highsmith was stashed again with no attention given to his quick feet and hands as an option for stopping Murray because, in the second quarter, Gabe Vincent picked up three suspect fouls in three minutes.

In the third quarter, Denver skewered Miami in the restricted area, logging 82% of its tries.

Jokić resumed his assault on White Hot and got Adebayo to leave his feet twice on a fake. He curled around a screen for a jump shot at the nail, canned a fadeaway over Kevin Love, plus buried one left-wing artillery strike supplied by Murray’s pass. That 3-pointer was the only one the Nuggets recorded in quarters three and four on five tries.

The Heatles couldn’t defend without fouling either in the second half, putting the Nuggets in target practice for 15 of 17 freebies.

Denver’s lead scaled to 21 points following intermission. Rookie Christian Braun even got his licks in with 11 points and one miss among the 12 players coach Michael Malone played post-break.

In the fourth quarter, the hosts used the 2-2-1 press to get into the 2-3 zone, but the visitors worked around it and still logged 53.8% of their shots. On defense, the Nuggets shut the Heat down from everywhere on the court.

Murray and Jokić each finished with 30-point triple-doubles. It was Murray’s first in the Playoffs and Jokić’s 10 in this tour and 16 in his postseason career, per NBA Stats.

At the postgame presser, Malone said the Game 3 win was the prime performance of the Jokić-Murray partnership.

“I have been with Nikola [Jokić] for eight and Jamal [Murray] for seven years now,” Malone said. “And we’ve had some pretty good moments, but not in the NBA Finals. And for those guys to make history the way they did tonight- no one’s ever done that…by far their greatest performance as a duo in their seven years together.”

In the Heat’s press room, coach Erik Spoelstra said his team lost plenty of 50-50 balls in swing moments of the match.

“At our best version, we find ways to overcome that, make it tough on them, and certainly not lose the overwhelming majority of those physical, 50-50 battles…” Spoelstra said.

Spoelstra also mentioned that winning the effort plays is the team’s identity, and when it isn’t up to standard, it can affect performance.

The ideal antidote to that problem should have been inserting Highsmith for more than two relief minutes. He works well in the zone and in man coverage and comes up with momentum-shifting plays. In the future, he should be the Heat’s backup big man.

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