Heat fight off Nuggets, earn 111-108 victory in Game 2
Discover more from Hot Hot Hoops - Miami Heat NBA Blog
Heat fight off Nuggets, earn 111-108 victory in Game 2
This was Miami's first win in Denver in nearly 2,400 days. No, that's not a typo.
The Miami Heat fended off a late Denver Nuggets comeback in Game 2 of the 2023 NBA Finals, but ended up on top with a 111-108 win to knot the series at one apiece.
Miami led 107-95 with 3:15 left, but an Aaron Gordon above-the-break 3-pointer followed by Jamal Murray’s stepback 3-pointer cut it to six.
Jimmy Butler widened the advantage to eight — 109-101 — but two more 3-pointers from Bruce Brown and Murray (on a second chance look) trimmed it to three with just over a minute left. Bam Adebayo was able to get to the foul line, sinking two free-throws, though Nikola Jokic a six-foot turnaround jumper for his 16th-and-final bucket of the night, cutting it back to three.
While Butler’s ensuing pull-up 3-pointer rimmed out, his late contest on Murray’s game-typing 3-point was good enough for it to miss as time expired, rewarding the Heat their first victory inside Ball Arena since Nov. 30, 2016 — nearly 2,400 days ago.
Sunday represented a much better egalitarian scoring effort for Miami, who shot 48.7 percent and 17-of-35 (48.6 percent) from distance; it had five double-figure scorers, including three with at least 20 points.
Gabe Vincent tallied 23 points on 8-of-12 shooting, including 4-of-6 from 3-point range. Butler and Adebayo had 21 points apiece; Butler dazzled with nine assists while Adebayo hauled in nine boards and swatted two shots.
Max Strus had 14 points on 4-of-10 shooting from deep while Duncan Robinson finished with 10 — all coming in a 1:50 span to open the fourth quarter after Miami entered down by eight. He scored 10 of the team’s first 13 to help Miami take an 86-85 lead, one they failed to relinquish.
Denver shot 52.0 percent and 39.3 (11-28) from 3-point range. Jokic finished with 41 points and 11 rebounds, canning 16 of his 28 shots. Murray added an 18-point, 10-assist double-double on 7-of-15 shooting with three triples.
Sunday marked the Nuggets’ first home loss since March 30. It also snapped a seven-game matchup losing streak for Miami, who previously didn’t have a victory against the Nuggets since Aug. 1, 2020, their first game inside the infamous NBA Bubble.
The Heat, who trailed by 15 midway through the second quarter courtesy of a 33-9 explosion over a nine-minute span, has now won seven of their 13 playoff games after trailing by double figures, tying a playoff record over the last 25 years.
Now, the Heat head back to the 305 tied at one apiece. It’s now a best-of-five with three inside Kaseya Center.
Three more.
Heat fight off Nuggets, earn 111-108 victory in Game 2
For me the celebration of game 2 is over.
Time to take stock and begin the clean up preparation for game 3.
Nuggets are certainly thinking, only if we had done this and not that, as most teams do after a close loss. So it is imperative the Heat begin their preparation early and I have no doubt Spo is already doing that, knowing how hard he works to get his team ready. These are solely my own thoughts.
1. May consider speeding up the offense intermittently before the Nuggets set up their defense.
2. Our transition defense in the first half with the 2nd unit was anemic to say the least. It needs to be faster to check the pace of Nuggets offense.
3. We have played from behind in games 1 and 2, as much as 21 pts in game 1 and 15 pts in game 2. It may not work in game 3. We need to keep the score tighter for game 3 either with our defense or scoring. I am certain that the Nuggets are not happy to see their big leads erased and that they are also doing their own clean up adjustments too.
4. Expect the Nuggets with their bruised ego to come out ferocious. It is possible that Murray plays throughout the 4 quarters as did Knick's Jalen Brunson in one of the Knick/Heat games, so as to keep the tempo fast and take the Heat off guide at home. That might be too much for Jimmy to be Murray's sole defender, as no other Heat player has done a better job defending Murray. Murray played all 24 minutes of the first half in game 2, so it is not inconceivable to think that he will play all 48 minutes or 40 plus minutes of game 3. Michael Malone was not pleased that his team played to the slower pace of the Heat beginning the 4th quarter, hence a likely strategy of a fast tempo game 3 for his team.
5. I liked the 10 man rotation of game 2, it kept bodies fresh.
6. Spo to avoid calling untimely timeout and replacement if possible, as he did in 1st half of game 1, which Nuggets took advantage of, to blow to up the lead.
7. May see some piece of Ty.
8. How do we defend lobs to Jokic (easily the tallest player on the court) in the paint? With hindsight, If the last 9 seconds of game 2 were to be replayed, it is possible that lobbing a pass to Jokic in the paint might be a preferred option for the Nuggets than have Murray take a contested 3.
9. Of the next 3 games, this game may be considered a must win game by the Nuggets in other to swing the momentum back in their favor. Fortunately, for the Heat every game is a must win game as per Heat's culture.That is comforting.
10. Will keep my fingers crossed for a fairly balanced officiating from the crew.
Go Heat, Go!
Shoutout to Coach Fiz for getting a job with the Suns.