Denver wins easily in Miami with a new display of Jokic

2023-06-08 06:07:39

The Miami Heat could not defend the home court factor that they had achieved in the second game and They fell defeated 109-94 against the Denver Nuggets, who put the 2-1 in the Finals of the NBA in a new exhibition of the Serbian center Nikola Jokic and the point guard Jamal Murray. Both got triple doubles to lead their team in a game that fell apart in the third quarter.

Jokic is a superlative player, as evidenced by the fact that he is the first to get 30 points, 20 rebounds and 10 assists in a Finals. He finished with 32 points, 21 sacks and 10 basket passes. with a good 12 of 21 shooting from the field. In addition, he was perfectly seconded by an effervescent Murray who signed 34 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. The ‘X factor’ for Denver was Christian Braun, who came off the bench to contribute 15 points on an excellent 7 of 8 shooting from the field. Although the Nuggets were not fine from the 3-point line (5 of 18, just 27.8% and a disastrous 1 of 7 for specialist Michael Porter Jr.), their endless offensive variations allowed them to score fluently near the basket and from the middle distance to the despair of the fans who packed the Kaseya Center in Miami.

In Florida, Jimmy Butler was once again the team leader with 28 points and Bam Adebayo continued his magnificent line in these Finals with 22 points and 17 rebounds, but they crashed against Denver’s unstoppable attack.

The first two quarters were tremendously even.. Very aware of the need to be physical about Jokic and Murray, the Heat deployed a sticky defense that allowed them to keep up with those from Colorado, so that the first period closed with a draw (24-24). Although the Nuggets improved a bit in the second quarter, it wasn’t enough to escape definitively either, and the score at halftime was even 53-48.

In the third quarter the game broke up. The Heat hit a slump on offense, and while they continued to put a lot of intensity on their defense, Denver found their way to the rim again and again. When Jokic couldn’t find comfortable positions to shoot, Murray managed to score from the outside (he was the only player on his team who was fine from beyond 7 meters with 3 triples out of 6 attempts). In addition, the energy of Christian Braun stunned Miami. Although they managed to control the damage to some extent and only lost the quarter of 9, 29-20, Denver had opened a gap on the scoreboard (82-68).

The fourth period was a want and I can’t for the Heat. Although they put all their weight into it, with very physical defenses, especially on Murray, full-court pressure, and occasional zone defenses, it was impossible to completely stop the Nuggets. Miami came within 9 points (103-94) with 1:22 remaining with a triple by Duncan Robinson, but precipitation prevented them from scoring again in the remainder of the game, so Denver was able to spend seconds slipping away simply by hitting free throws.

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With everything resolved, Spoelstra brought on his substitutes, including Udonis Haslem who is one of only three players to have spent 20 seasons on the same team.

The series will have one more game in Miami early Friday through Saturday before flying back to Denver for Game 5, which will take place Monday night through Tuesday.