Well, I guess Mike Malone’s criticism proved to be effective. The Denver Nuggets have taken another step closer to be crowded NBA champions as they played stellar defense against the Miami Heat, humbling them 109-94 to take a 2-1 lead.
This game was the epitome of how the Nuggets can win this series.
After a brutal, honest dressing down by head coach Mike Malone after a bad Game 2 loss, the Denver Nuggets came out with a fury against the Heat with two players (guess who) scoring 30-point triple-doubles and the Nuggets winning the game by 15 points to take a 2-1 series lead. And, this really is the most telling game of the NBA Finals yet.
If you’re a Nuggets fan, you better be kneeling at the altar of Michael Malone right now and giving him all of your praise and admiration as his furious call-out seems to have woken up the fire and passion this team has. And, more importantly, it was pretty much the main reason why the Nuggets went into Miami, smacked around the Heat, and took a 2-1 series lead out of Game 3 to give them all the momentum and home court advantages back.
This game review is really one of the simplest ones I’ve had to do throughout this year’s NBA postseason as the downfall of the Heat and the rise of the Nuggets can be described with three words: pure physical domination.
The Nuggets, led by Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray’s historic 30-point triple-double, respective, performances, wholeheartedly obliterated the Miami Heat in the paint as they outrebounded Miami 58-33, outrebounded them on the offensive glass 13-10, forced Miami into 22 fouls, went to the line 27 times, and outscored Miami 60-43 in the paint to post leads as large as 21 points throughout the game.
Aside from a quick splurge in the opening minutes of the 1st quarter, there wasn’t a moment when the Heat had a foothold in this game as Jokic, Murray, Aaron Gordon (11 PTS, 10 REB, 5 AST, 1 STL, 5-10 FG shooting), Michael Porter Jr. (2 PTS, 7 REB, 0 AST), Christian Braun (15 PTS, 4 REB, 1 AST, 1 STL, 7-8 FG shooting), Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (6 PTS, 3 REB, 0 AST), and Bruce Brown (5 PTS, 2 REB, 0 AST) simply boxed out any Heat attempt for the ball.
Sure, Bam Adebayo (22 PTS, 17 REB, 3 AST, 1 STL), the Heat’s most physically dominating/talented player, was able to collect an impressive 17 rebounds for himself, but not a single other member of this team had more than 4 rebounds (which was just Max Strus).
Evidently, you’ll never be able to win an NBA game if one player on your team, whose name is not Wilt Chamberlian, Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabar, Shaquielle O’Neal, or Hakeem Olajuwon, is collecting 51% of your 33 rebounds.
The Nuggets truly just imposed their oppressive physicality onto the Heat as Denver didn’t even attempt 20 3-point attempts, while they only converted 27.8% (5/18) of the ones they actually did lob up (and Jamal Murray was responsible for 3/5 made 3-pointers).
Instead, the Nuggets relied solely on layups, post-moves, dunks, lobs, and midrange jumper field goal attempts (41/80 FG shooting; 51.2%) to wear down the Heat’s defense and force them into making silly, careless fouls to send the Nuggets to the free throw line (22/27 free throw accuracy; 81.5%). I mean, the Heat never even won a single quarter as they tied 24-24 in Q1, lost Q2 29-24, lost Q3 29-20, and Q4 27-26.
That’s how imposing the Nuggets were on their smaller team.
Sure, the Heat had a woeful shooting night of their own as they only made 34/92 (37.0%) FG attempts, 11/35 (31.4%) 3-point FG attempts, and just 15/19 (78.9%) from the free throw line, while Jimmy Butler (22 PTS, 2 REB, 4 AST, 1 BLK, 11-24 FG shooting), Gabe Vincent (7 PTS, 0 REB, 0 AST, 2 STLs, 2-10 FG shooting), Max Strus (3 PTS, 4 REB, 5 AST, 1 STL, 1 BLK, 1-7 FG shooting), and Duncan Robinson (9 PTS, 1 REB, 0 AST, 3-6 3-point shooting) all had pitiful nights from the floor.
But how much is that down to the Heat’s own shooting woes, or the Nugget’s rugged, tall defense?
We saw in both the Celtics series and now this series that Jimmy Butler’s effectiveness can be dramatically reduced when tall, imposing, and composed defenders, such as the Celtics’ Robert Williams (at times), Aaron Gordon, and Nikola Jokic, are guarding him. And the same goes for Vincent, Robinson, and Strus.
These guys rely on near wide-open looks off screens and blown defensive coverages, smaller, less-composed defenders, and a little bit of luck to beat the biggest and best teams in the NBA. It’s how they warded off Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks, Jalen Brunson and the Knicks, and Jayson Tatum and the Celtics, and Nikola Jokic in the Nuggets in Game 2 throughout this postseason.
I’m not saying the Heat’s run to the Finals has been down their opponents’ terrible play or bad luck as the Heat have been the one’s causing their opponents into making these mistakes and disadvantages, but I think the jig is up.
You can only get by so far in the NBA with a small, undersized team, and it seems like the Heat have finally run into that well-oiled, tall, dominating big team that is poised to quench their flame.
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