What fun an NBA Finals is! Stay up all night or get up early in the morning before the little kids wake up and have to go to work and enjoy the best basketball experience in the world. And what a game it was.
Adam Silver, Nikola Jokic and Denver players answer questions from Israel Hayom envoy to Denver Ronen Dorfen
Denver and Miami came into the series with both winning all of the first games in the previous series. The Nuggets continued that into the Finals. The game flowed and there were almost no stops, there were few fouls and also without too much time on penalty shots.
So what did we have there? Rigolj brakes, dongles, platinum, these elements Jokic introduced. Offensively, Denver played its usual basketball, Jokic delivered to anyone and before he even threw to the basket he had already delivered 6 assists.
Denver's no-ball movement cut through Miami's defense, which failed to make things difficult for the offense. So Aaron Gordon scored 14 of his 16 in the paint after cutting or by taking advantage of a matchup on a player shorter than him. "I didn't shoot the basket because I didn't have to," Jokic said, "I got and I took advantage of what the Miami defense gave me."
The connection between Marie and Jokic yields especially sweet fruit. They both get a lot of attention from the defense and when they take advantage of that to find each other and the available player, it's very hard to stop them. Murray scored 26 points and dished out 10 aces, Jokic scored 27 and delivered 14. They combined to shoot 55% from the field. Butler addressed this in his press conference, saying, "Denver is a very talented team, Murray is dangerous with the ball but more dangerous without the ball."
"You drive down the Colorado Bridge and you see an eruption, how do you know if it's two players or one Jokic? Passing in the middle. If you passed, there's probably a basket and there are two players, if you didn't, you probably committed a foul on Jokic."
Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray. A winning duo, photo: AP
Sometimes in basketball, the defense has to choose its poisoned glass, hoping to stumble upon a glass of fine wine. Denver chose to focus on Miami's shooting and no-ball movement, and let Bam Adebayo win, and it worked for them. Bam scored 26 but delivered only 5 aces and couldn't find the scorers around him — Robinson (1-of-5 from three), Max Strus (0-of-9 from three) and Caleb Martin (1-of-7 from the field) couldn't be a factor.
Gordon got the complex defensive task on Jimmy Butler, and did a good job. Beyond his one-on-one defense, he gave Butler the desire to attack the basket. Butler finished a particularly anemic and quiet game with just 14 shots from the field, and no free throws. And that comes from a player who averages 9 free throws per game in the playoffs.
"I should have been more aggressive, it's not good that we didn't attack and we got to the ring, it's on me and I need to be better," Jimmy said. Butler finished with 13 points on 14 shots from the field and just 17.2 percent usage per game. Overall, Denver committed only 8 fouls in the entire game, only once did they send their opponent to the line.
Jimmy Butler. Didn't start the finals series well, Photo: USA TODAY Sports
The reverse doesn't move
For Miami, the offense couldn't make the shots they got, but if active is a good thing, he scored 16 points in the paint and scored the free looks he got. But a passive butler is much less good. He avoided half-distance shots, and even when he got the chance, he tried to get the ball out to get his teammates involved.
It's great and he really finished with 7 aces but it comes at the expense of his points which are important to get into things and let the defense deal with him and not them.
And with all the criticism of Miami and the large gap that opened up late in the third quarter, the Heat knew how to come back and narrow even without shooting from three and with good ability in the fourth quarter. The fourth quarter opened at 22 and Miami cut the gap to just 9 with Kyle Lowry and Hayward Highsmith scoring well.
If Miami's free threes come in and Butler is more aggressive, the game will look different. "We were good, the shots just didn't go in, in the next games it will look different," the Miami star promised ahead of the next game.
Maybe if Miami's threes had gone in, everything would have looked different, Photo: Getty Images
The first game is behind us, Miami has time to sit down and think of a new method of how to stop the machine called Denver, with center cog Nikola Jokic showing how special he is with exemplary game management and surprising passes. Until then, let everyone have Shabbat Shalom full of rest and contentment.
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Only three duos in history have delivered 10 or more aces in a Finals game — Magic and James Worthy, Jordan and Pippen and, tonight, Jokic and Murray.
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