Nuggets hoping to learn a lesson from Game 2 loss
MIAMI — The Nuggets fully comprehend they have dominated most of the first two games of this NBA Finals against the Heat, yet the series is tied and they’ve lost homecourt advantage.
The Nuggets have had more than 48 hours to contemplate their next move, as they try to take control of the series in Wednesday night’s Game 3. And there is hope that the brutal honesty of coach Michael Malone, lambasting his team’s Game 2 effort, will serve as the necessary wake-up call.
The Nuggets, like the Bucks, Knicks, and Celtics before them, have learned that the Heat are experts at adjustments and making the most of their talent, and they will have to respond with a resounding effort.
“I think it’s important to remind us that just because we’re playing at home and we’re undefeated, you just can’t show up and think that’s going to continue,” Malone said Tuesday. “Coming off of a four-game sweep against the Lakers, and that was a very hardfought sweep. They were in every game. We had to fight for every game. So, you have to find a way to turn a negative into a positive.”
The Nuggets had a team dinner Monday at Jeff Green’s Miami-area home, and then Malone showed his players the litany of mistakes they made in Game 2, especially defensively. The Heat were constantly open for 3pointers in the second half, with the Nuggets often confused by Miami’s ball movement and cutting.
The Heat scored 36 points in the fourth quarter, the result of defensive errors and bad fouls by the Nuggets, and Miami’s clutch shooting.
“We had a really good film session this morning. I gave an opportunity for everybody on our team to speak and talk about what they saw on the film,” Malone said. “It was a very honest conversation. Guys owned what they needed to own. We have to learn from Game 2 to use it to our advantage. What I know about our group is for years now we’ve handled adversity very well. I have no doubt that tomorrow night will be a much more disciplined, urgent team for 48 minutes.”
Meanwhile, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra made two key adjustments on defense. He started Kevin Love to prevent mismatches with powerful Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon, who posted up undersized Gabe Vincent and Max Strus in Game 1. Love’s size eliminated that. That also allowed Jimmy Butler to guard No. 2 scorer Jamal Murray, who was limited to 10 points before a too-little-too-late flurry in the final 10 minutes.
“He is one of the heads of the snake,” Butler said of Murray. “I think it’s a two-headed snake in this instance. Bam [Adebayo] has a really tough job to do. I think time and time again, I have a tough job on Murray. He scores in so many different ways. He has the ball consistently and he is making all the right reads, all the right passes.
“But it’s just about effort, contesting every shot, body on body, making everything difficult for him. I’ve got to continually do that because I know if I lead the way on that end along with Bam, everybody has to follow suit.
“It’s all about doing your job, doing what is asked of you on any given night, and hoping, praying that you did enough to get a win.”
And it’s now on Murray to make adjustments. In Game 1, he moved freely around the floor, finding spaces in the Heat’s zone for open mid-range jumpers. He finished with 26 points on 22 shots with 10 assists. He attempted seven fewer shots in Game 2, and while Nikola Jokic carried the offense with 41 points, the remainder of the Nuggets didn’t offer much assistance. The four other starters combined for 41 points.
And the Nuggets besides Murray and Jokic made just four shots in a difficult offensive second half. One of the primary culprits for Denver’s inconsistency is swingman Michael Porter Jr., who has missed 17 of his 24 shots in the series, and has been lost on defense.
“I think intensity and energy wasn’t where it needed to be from me personally, or really the team as a whole,” Porter said. “We can talk about the mistakes that we had defensively, but really it’s about intensity. There’s stuff we’ve got to clean up. They are a really good team. They are doing some actions that are hard to guard. So, our communication has to be on point, but really I think that’s main thing is, I think communication, because those defensive lapses can make it look like we are not playing hard because they get open shots. But really, we just need to be locked in to what we need to be doing, the coverages.”
Communication has been the emphasis the past two days. Malone said his team lacked that essential element in Game 2. The Nuggets believed they could win the game on talent, but the Heat require more intensity and preparation. The Nuggets promised to be more prepared Wednesday night.
“What we can do better is just be a lot more disciplined in terms of the game plan, who I’m guarding,” Malone said. “Most of that stems from communication. A saying I learned a long time ago, communication is concentration. For me to communicate, I have to know what the hell to say. If I’m not concentrating and I’m not focusing, I don’t know what to say. We had way too many examples, for an NBA Finals game, where we had guys not on the same page because of a lack of communication.
“Their ball movement, their body movement, obviously they do a really good job with that. But we’ve played 17 games now in these playoffs. Think about this: Going to the fourth quarter, they had 75 points. They were shooting 43 percent from the field, and we’re up 8. So now it’s just a matter of sustaining it for a lot closer to 48 minutes.”