The Nuggets put themselves on the cusp of NBA immortality on Friday, as they defeated the Heat on the road, 108-95, in Game 4 of the Finals to secure one win from the club’s first-ever league title.
Denver swept the two games in Miami, but Friday’s victory looked very different from the team’s victory in Game 3, as Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray twice dominated the Heat.
Here are the three things that stand out the most about Pivot 4.
Miami missed its golden opportunity with Jokic on the bench
It would be weird to say that the Heat, as an underdog, should be kicking themselves for not taking a chance. As a No. 8 seed, no one – except perhaps Jimmy Butler – could have made them this far from the start. However, with the game looking out of reach for Miami, Jokic was forced to the bench with 9:24 left after being whistled by an official for a fifth foul — a foul that, looking back at the rematch, looked like a Bam Adebayo flop.
Denver has a better 24.8 points per 100 possessions with its star on the floor during the regular season, according to Cleaning the Glass — a net rating that puts Jokić’s impact on the Nuggets in the 100th percentage for the league. It must go without saying that this club is always liable to stumble without him on the field.
However, without him in those five-plus minutes with him sidelined, the Nuggets held on. Stuff got a bit hairy for them momentarily — the Heat cut their deficit from 10 to 5 in that first minute Jokić sat out — but then the Denver defense held firm, perhaps taking advantage of being able to shift better without Jokić there.
Murray looked jaded at one point after taking on more offensive responsibility with his star teammate. But he got a lot of help in those moments from Aaron Gordon and Bruce Brown. By the time Jokic re-entered with about four minutes left, Denver’s lead was nine, and it felt almost insurmountable given that Miami hadn’t been able to cut things further during his absence.
Denver’s depth shone again
After the Nuggets won Game 1, we referred to their offense as some kind of Whac-a-Mole. It is very easy to point out that decapitating a snake by taking Jokić or Murray away (punchers or scorers) will increase the probability of them hitting. But none of those players shone compared to what they accomplished during Historic Game 3, when both players landed three-and-outs.
There were incredible flashes from both of them, as always. Murray caught 12 crosses without a turnover, and between the two, they hit half of their attempts from deep. But limiting them to 38 points on 36 shot attempts is really hard to achieve. In the absence of other context, you can certainly take this kind of score if you’re Miami coach Eric Spoelstra.
Just one problem: This team is deep enough to win even when these players don’t score the ball efficiently.
Gordon has the highest scoring percentage in the entire postseason, scoring 27 points on just 15 shots, while brilliantly seeing the floor and recording six assists. He looked a lot like he did in Game 1, when he harassed Heat defenders in the restricted area, but he also lost as a cutaway the same way rookie Christian Brown did so many times in Game 3.
Brown, perhaps the best free agent deal in the league since last summer, has appeared aggressive at times in the race to the basket. He balanced a precise jump drive, shot three of his five attempts from deep, and had 21 points of his own.
We know Miami has depth, too, as we’ve heard the endless story of how many unmade players are on club courts, and how the Heat took everything out of them. But this idea — that there’s nothing left to get out of these guys — feels more and more true at times throughout the series. Gabe Vincent, who played incredibly well in the postseason, was in serious trouble again, shooting 1-of-6 just for 2 points. Max Strus was less productive, going scoreless on four shot attempts.
The backcourt initially combined for two points one night as Adebayo struggled and missed a number of short-handed looks – most notably in those crucial minutes when Jokic was sidelined – spelled a doom for Miami. There just isn’t enough consistency during the Heat’s offense, which looks like the pole opposite to Denver, who put up 104, 108, 109 and 108 points in the series.
After all questions, Denver’s defense showed it deserved the title
We all went into this Finals knowing the Heat wouldn’t make a lot of mistakes if they were going to have a shot at winning this thing. So what does he say when, in their biggest game of the year, they turn the ball over 16 times to Denver’s eight errors?
You can certainly install it on Miami if you wish. But to some extent, it seems like the Denver deserve more credit than the Heat deserve blame.
Kentavius Caldwell Pope has received criticism for his past few matches and rightfully so. He wasn’t great offensively on Friday either. But he emerged in formidable defensive fashion that fourth quarter while Jokić was benched with the five fouls, hitting a close range effort from Butler, then catching Jeb Butler as he sought to recover the ball and return it. . Gordon was solid defensively as well, when he played the center position in place of Jokic in the pick-ball lineup.
In terms of double the heat in the spin class, that’s not what the Nuggets are known for at all, really. They were a club in the bottom 10 in forcing turnovers, and were merely defending in the middle of the pack, a metric that left many questioning whether they were great enough at this end to win the championship.
But after holding the Heat under 100 points for the third time in four games to start the series, things started to come into focus. This is starting to look like the fate of the Nuggets, who now sit just one victory away from the Mile High throne as league champions for the first time.