DENVER – The Denver Nuggets defeated the Miami Heat in Game 1 of the NBA Finals Thursday night. For Nuggets, that’s the good news.
But one look at Thursday night’s 104-93 win in Study Movies, well, yeah, it didn’t make Denver head coach Michael Malone the happiest person. What he saw were failed missions and missed rotations. What he saw was a bunch of open looks from Heat’s 3-point combo that could have easily swing the game. What he saw was an offense fumble in the fourth quarter against Miami District, which is kind of a shock because Nikola Jokic was on the ground during that possession and you don’t usually imagine a Jokic-led team getting frustrated by a zone defense. What he saw was a lack of transition balance that led to an open appearance—it seemed like the Heat had been steadily declining for much of the postseason.
Jokić and Jamal Murray were very good and very talented in attack in the first match. And the Nuggets were terrific in defense of Miami star Jimmy Butler, which, along with the Heat losing those wide-open looks, could have saved Denver. So, the Nuggets are up 1-0, but it was far from the clean performance that defined Denver’s run to the Finals. It was one of those games where the Nuggets know their game has to get better if they want to win their first NBA title, starting with game two on Sunday night at Ball Arena.
“Yeah, I don’t think we played well in the first game,” said Malone. “I watched that tape, and Miami went 5-of-16 in 3s wide open. The fact that they have 16 3s wide open is a problem, and if you think Max Strus is going 0-9 again or Duncan Robinson is going 1-5 over Others, you’re wrong. We gave up 30 points in the fourth quarter. They shot 60 percent from the field and 50 percent from 3-point range. So there’s a lot of territory we can clean up. I’m not worried about what Miami will do. We know the Heat will come out And he’s playing well. I’m worried about the things we have to do better in order to try to win the second match.”
On Saturday morning, Denver’s last 30 minutes of practice proved to be light. There were shooting competitions. There were a lot of smiles. Hip-hop blasted through the speakers, highlighted by OutKast and old school 2Pac. Behind closed doors, Nuggets were an intense bunch. Malone looked his players in the eye and reminded them to stay off social media, turn off the TV and hop off Instagram, places where fans are singing Denver’s praises and already announcing a series that’s just getting started.
Remind them that the series is not over yet. Tell them bluntly that they haven’t won anything at all. As was the case for the entire postseason, this message was well received. The beauty of this particular batch of Nuggets is that the menu was on par with Coach. As Tim Duncan let Gregg Popovich do during the San Antonio Spurs dynasty, these Nuggets players allowed Malone to coach them hard. They let him be honest. They let him lash out when needed. It’s one of the reasons Denver has been consistently good through the playoffs. This group has really outdone themselves.
Therefore, the Nuggets agreed that Thursday night’s Game 1 performance left a lot to be desired, relative to the way they played during the postseason. But in doing so, they also left themselves room for a little grace.
“The reason I tell our players I’m excited this morning is because we won the first game and we didn’t play well,” said Malone. “There were a lot of things we could have done better. I think we’ll have a chance to win Match 2 if we can do a lot of these things at a better level.”
So, what should be done?
Malone thought Denver’s defense was too lenient, not taking enough away from Miami. Bam Adebayo had 26 points, 13 rebounds, and had an open float all night. That last part would have been fine if the Nuggets hadn’t also abandoned the open 3-point look. In the fourth quarter, they either had several picks involving Kyle Lowry and Gabe Vincent or didn’t play far enough to even screen level, allowing Lowry and Vincent an easy open look.
To cap it off, Denver allowed Miami to hit 11 offensive rebounds, which led to plenty of those 3 open goals.
“They’ve generated a lot of open looks, and that’s something we have to work on and be more focused on,” said Denver guard Kentavius Caldwell Pope. “We have to stay motivated and stay focused. We are here. We don’t want to fumble the ball at the 1-yard line. We have three games to win. We have to stay focused and get this championship.”
What the Nuggets have to determine is how much of the performance in the fourth quarter was due to not playing well and how much was due to their almost insurmountable lead. Denver leads Game 1 by as many as 24 points. The Heat had nine points with about 10 minutes left, but the Nuggets were never in any serious danger of losing their lead.
This is a team that knows what is at stake and how fleeting a championship opportunity can be. This is why the Nuggets don’t view Game 1 as a game in which they played very well. It is also a reason why they are on the cusp of winning the title. They chased perfection throughout the post-season. And they’ve been playing at or near their roof for a long time because of that.
(Top photo by Michael Malone: Bart Young/NBAE via Getty Images)