Miami couldn’t make them pay for most of the night, shooting just 13 for 39 for the game (33.3%).īecause Miami struggled on their pull-up jumpers and 3-pointers, the paint never got uncongested, and as a result, Denver held Miami to just 38 points in the paint (8.4 points less than its season average) and two free-throw attempts (21 less than its season average) for the entire game. However, the Nuggets didn’t seem to care and would cheat off of them anyways. Unlike the Lakers, Miami employs a handful of splendid marksmen. The second step was having the Nuggets’ off-ball defenders help off of shooters to stay near the paint. Bam Adebayo was 8 for 15 on jumpers between 4-15 feet on the way to a playoff-high 26 points, but as a team, the Heat were 11 for 35 (31.4%) on pull-up jumpers in Game 1 (per NBA.com).
Unlike when Miami would use the drop against Murray/Jokić ( see above), this worked for Denver because the Heat couldn’t burn them with pull-ups consistently enough. The first step in doing this was having Jokić sag back in a deep drop to stay near the paint. As they did against the Los Angeles Lakers, the Nuggets opted to protect the paint at all costs versus Miami.Īs we’ve established before, the Nuggets don’t have many great paint protectors, so to safeguard the interior, they need to do so by flooding the restricted area with as many bodies as possible. Usually, that wouldn’t be too asinine of a request, considering Michael Malone’s club was just a middle-of-the-road defense in the regular season (14th in our adjusted defensive rating metric).īut alas, the Heat’s offense could do no right against prong No. To make up the ground that Denver was gaining on offense, the Heat needed to fight fire with fire. In Game 1, it felt like no matter what Miami threw at Jokić and Murray, they had an answer. Lastly, when Miami went to their zone, Murray would just find Jokić in the middle of the floor and let the greatest passing center of all time pick them apart from there (fourth clip). So Murray would just enter the ball into Jokić in the post, and he’d make mincemeat of the mismatch the same way Gordon did (third clip). When a bigger defender was on Murray (like Butler or Haywood Highsmith), the Heat would try and switch the matchup. When Miami would send a second defender at Murray, he would take an extra dribble or two to lure the defending big man further away from Jokić and kick it to his big man for a pick-and-pop (second clip). When that happened, Murray was able to burn them with his pull-up jumper (first clip in the montage below). Remember last year’s Finals when we talked about how Stephen Curry had an answer for every pick-and-roll coverage the Boston Celtics threw at him? That was what happened with Jokić and Murray in Game 1.įor most of the game, the Heat tried to defend the action in a deep drop. 2 – Denver’s patented two-man game between Murray and Jokić. The mountain becomes even more insurmountable when you factor in prong No. Third Clip: Gordon sets a down screen for Murray, Vincent gets caught in it because the Heat don’t want him to switch on Gordon, and it’s an easy layup for Murray.ĭenver’s size on its own is a massive hurdle for the Eastern Conference champs to climb.
#SUNS VS NUGGETS GAME 2 PREDICTION MOVIE#
He gets the ball again in the post, and you’ve seen this movie before. Second Clip: Gordon rushes down the court in transition to force a cross-match where Max Strus (6-foot-5, 215 pounds) is guarding him instead of Butler.Murray enters the ball to Gordon in the post, and it looks like Denver is having baby back ribs for dinner. Miami switches it, which puts Jimmy Butler (6-foot-7, 230 pounds) on Murray and Gabe Vincent (6’3 195 pounds) on Gordon (6’8 235 pounds).
First Clip: Jamal Murray, who also filled the box score in his first NBA Finals game (26 points, 10 assists, six rebounds), has Gordon set a ball screen for him.
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