NBA Finals Nuggets vs. Heat Game 1 Insights: How Miami played Denver around Nikola Jokic

NBA Finals – Nikola Jokic is too good for Miami

We’ve seen enough of this movie in the playoffs. The Heat go into the fourth quarter with a double-digit deficit, only to win in the end. Not so in Game 1 of the Finals. Admittedly, Miami was already 21 points behind and was able to reduce to -9 in the meantime, but Denver’s victory was no longer in danger.

Nikola Jokic once again made the difference. While in the previous rounds Milwaukee, New York and Boston faltered with such heat runs, the joker kept his nerve and brought victory to the finish line. The center scored 12 of his 27 points in the final section and now became the scorer after putting his teammates in the limelight for three quarters with a total of 14 assists.

Miami now played a lot of zone defense, so Jokic increasingly operated from the free-throw line. Sometimes it was a postup, sometimes he took a floater. It all collapsed the zone and was a key to the nuggets prior to this series. Largely thanks to Jokic, Denver has proven to be too talented when the Miami gets away with it.

Of all people, Shaqnow better known for his platitudes, summed it up after the game: “He lets the game come to him and doesn’t want to force anything. (…) That’s the definition of a great player. He not only shines himself, but makes the others look good too. I’m glad to see him live.”

It could have been worse, but Denver scored from outside in this game for only the second time in the playoffs under 30 percent (8/27, 0/9 in the final period). In the regular season, the Nuggets won only six out of 14 games, but this time it was still enough for a double-digit victory.

NBA Finals: Miami limits Denver’s transition

At least the positive thing from the Heat’s point of view was that they were able to control the pace. This was achieved with just 8 ball losses, which the Nuggets used to score 13 points. Nevertheless: The Heat will be able to live with just 9 points in transition, which deprived Denver of at least one great strength.

Still, the Nuggets found ways for easy points just at half-time. Miami was usually behind quickly, but the matchups often didn’t fit. Aaron Gordon has become so good at making quick transitions that he’s often first to the basket and needs a guard to help out against him. With the power of the forward, these are almost always two easy points.

It also helps that Jokic notices such things very quickly and plays well-timed passes. Gordon recorded 12 of his 14 points in the first quarter, all dunks and layups, Denver scored 20 points in the zone in that period and only 26 more for the rest of the game.

Miami had fewer coordination issues, delivered the zone better, and was able to live with threes from Michael Porter Jr. and co. because they couldn’t convert them in Game 1.

NBA Finals: Heat and Butler far too passive

For a long time, this also applied to the Heat, who thanks to 6/12 in the final section came to an acceptable 33.3 percent (13/39), although Max Strus (0/9) and Duncan Robinson (1/5) organized a competition, who can shoot more tickets. Many of those attempts were open, but not without pressure, as Denver usually rotated well and was at least always close when the threes flew.

The upside, however, was that Miami took 39 three-pointers at all. Against such a good offense, the Heat simply need distance shots to score enough and it wasn’t the volume that night. The Heat will have games where they score better and then they’ll probably be able to stand up to Denver.

The lack of free throws weighs more heavily. Only one drawn shooting foul over 48 minutes has never happened in the playoffs and that was really not because the referees swallowed their whistle during plays. Although some reporters tried to tease from the Heat answers that this was so (Adebayo counter-question: “Will you then pay my fine?”), but that was not the reason for this historically low number.

Rather, the Heat failed to attack the basket consistently. Normally Jimmy Butler is responsible for this, but he seemed strangely passive. In the entire game, Butler only made eight moves to the basket, only completing once. So it’s no wonder the Heat’s superstar went without a single trip to the free-throw line for the first time since October.

To classify that. In these playoffs, Butler put up 17.8 drives per game, only in Game 2 against the Bucks he shot a similar number of drives (9). But that was the Heat’s recipe for success. Hard butler drives and role players sinking their threesomes. There was no sign of that in the Mile High City. Butler started well, struggling to make room against the taller and more athletic Aaron Gordon.

Butler isn’t really quick, he mostly does it with power and fakes, but against AG he saw little land and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope or Michael Porter Jr. also generated stops against Butler.

NBA Finals: Nuggets make Adebayo the scorer

Instead, the top scorer of the Heat was Adebayo, who at least proved that he hasn’t forgotten where the basket is after he fabricated some outrageous failed attempts against Boston. The center marked 26 points, but he also needed 25 shots for this and only took seven of them directly on the ring.

Instead, it was mainly short jumpers, mostly after a pick’n’roll. The nuggets seemed fine with that – and they were right. Adebayo’s jump shots won’t give Denver a headache, it’s more of a win for the Nuggets’ defense, even if he hits over half of them.

Adebayo also has to be more aggressive and at least test Jokic once. The Serb never ran the risk of foul problems. The drop coverage could only punish Miami to a limited extent, even though Miami made a lot of good throws from the Adebayo handoffs (but used them too rarely).

NBA Finals: The Nuggets are too big for Miami

It was to be feared, but the Heat have massive size disadvantages. Aaron Gordon got whatever he wanted in the first quarter, including helping out defensively. In addition to Gordon, Michael Porter Jr. in particular drew attention to himself, who helped out several times around the ring and even blocked a jumper from Butler.

It wasn’t until the fourth quarter that the Heat found a sensible solution in Haywood Highsmith, even though he’s only 6’2″. With him, the Heat also tried to copy the Lakers concept. Adebayo was temporarily placed on the wing, Highsmith had to plow Jokic. This may be fine for a few possessions, but it won’t be a long-term solution.

Miami simply lacks a big forward to play things like this over a long period of time. Alternatives are few and far between, which is already noticeable in the fact that Miami really let Cody Zeller play Jokic for a few minutes. Maybe we’ll see Kevin Love again soon. The Heat Jokic won’t stop, so you can try Only Offense.

But it also shows that Denver is clearly the better team and didn’t even have to show their best game in Game 1 to win comfortably. Bad news for Miami, who lost an opener game for the first time in the playoffs.

NBA Finals – Nuggets vs. Heat: The series at a glance

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