The Denver Nuggets went into Game 2 of the NBA Finals with a 1–0 series lead over the Miami Heat. But they could not take a 2-0 series lead at home, coming up short and allowing the Heat to even things at 1–1. After a loss that could have demoralized the Nuggets, find out how Denver turned things around from there to leave no doubt that they were deserving NBA champions.
Going into Game 2 of the NBA Finals, the match had good odds for Denver to take a 2–0 lead over Miami. The Nuggets entered that contest as eight-point favorites at home, where they had been undefeated to that point at 9-0 in the postseason. But things did not go as planned for Michael Malone’s team, as they dropped their first home game of the playoffs that night.
In that loss, Denver allowed Miami to convert on 17 of their 35 three-point shot attempts, allowing Miami to seize the momentum in the series briefly. However, that momentum was short-lived for Miami, thanks to Denver making several necessary adjustments in the remainder of the series. Identifying those adjustments helped the Nuggets turn their Game 2 loss into a positive when looking back on their season.
Arguably, the biggest takeaway from Game 2 of the NBA Finals was that the Nuggets simply had to be better on the defensive end of the floor. After allowing five members of the Heat to score in double-figures in Game 2, the Nuggets knew that they needed to clean things up on that end of the floor. Based on what we saw in the rest of the series, the Nuggets rose to the challenge defensively the rest of the way.
In the final three games of the NBA Finals, the Nuggets prevented the Heat from reaching the 100-point mark in a game. They were incredibly stingy toward the three-point shooting of the Heat, who failed to make 35% of their three-point shots in any of those final three games of the Finals. The efforts of the Nuggets were especially impactful against Gabe Vincent, who went from being the difference maker in Game 2 to a non-factor the rest of the series.
After making eight of his 12 field goal attempts in Game 2, Vincent made a combined six field goals on 29 attempts in Games 3 through 5. While some of that was just regression to the mean after an unusually efficient Game 2 performance, the Nuggets’ defense also deserves credit. Without taking a proverbial haymaker from the Heat in Game 2 from a long distance, the Nuggets may not have stepped up on that end of the floor to the degree they did.
In Denver’s Game 2 loss to Miami, Nikola Jokic scored an impressive 41 points on 16/28 shooting from the field. But another critical Game 2 takeaway was that Jokic needed to impact the game more from a non-scoring perspective. That meant being more effective at rebounding the basketball or dishing out assists, which Jokic managed to do en route to wins in the series’ final three games.
Jokic had a combined 15 rebounds and assists in Game 2 and saw that total increase in each of the series’ final three games. He had 31 combined boards and assists in Game 3, 16 in Game 4, and 20 in Game 5. Impacting the game more in other areas forced the Miami defense to key in on Jokic even more, which allowed players like Aaron Gordon to have the impressive series he had.
This past season saw Nikola Jokic fail to win the NBA MVP award for the first time in the last three seasons. But his ability to adapt and sacrifice his individual numbers for his team’s performance proved that his value is still unmatched in the league today, no matter what awards voters have to say.
When looking back at the championship season for the Denver Nuggets, the players deserve all of the credit they have received and then some. But head coach Michael Malone deserves more credit than he has received, as he demanded more from his team all season. When he needed to demand more of them on the defensive end after Game 2 of the Finals, his team knew exactly what to do — due to him already providing them with that experience.
The question now is whether the Nuggets can solidify themselves as one of the great teams in the recent history of the NBA. Another deep playoff run would do that, and another championship would put them in the same ranks as some of the best teams in the sport’s history.
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