On their route to a 104-93 victory in Game 1 on Thursday night, the Denver Nuggets had little issue overcoming the sluggish Miami Heat thanks in large part to Nikola Jokic’s triple-double in his NBA Finals debut and Jamal Murray’s 26 points.
Jokic finished with 27 points, 14 assists, and 10 rebounds for the Nuggets, who made it to the championship game after 47 years of waiting. Denver led by as many as 24 points after trailing for only 34 seconds because to the 16 points from Aaron Gordon and 14 points from Michael Porter Jr.
Bam Adebayo led Miami, which shot 41% overall and 33% from three-point range, with 26 points and 13 rebounds in the contest. For the Heat, Gabe Vincent had 19 points, Haywood Highsmith had 18, and Jimmy Butler had 13.
Game 2 is on Sunday night in Denver.
Miami went on an 11-0 run to start the fourth quarter, reducing an early 84-63 deficit to 84-74. With 2:34 left, Highsmith’s three-pointer for the Heat brought them within nine, but they couldn’t get any closer, and there was no question about the outcome.
During shootaround on Thursday morning, Nuggets coach Michael Malone quizzed his team on the game plan and what needed to be done in the most significant game in the franchise’s history.
They already knew all the solutions. Also had them all during game time. With only two players having participated in previous championship rounds, they were the team with the least amount of NBA Finals experience, but in Game 1, they exuded a sense of comfort in front of the home crowd.
LeBron James was the other player to have 10 assists at halftime of a finals game in the previous 25 years. Jokic became that player. By halftime, he had tallied 10 points and 10 assists, and Denver had a 59-42 lead.
Miami didn’t benefit from that. That wasn’t the case either: Jokic had only attempted three shots and the Nuggets had total control.
And the worst part of all was that the Heat simply couldn’t shoot. At all. Until Denver was too far ahead to catch, at least. Through three quarters, Max Strus was 0 for 10, including 0 for 9 from beyond the arc. Caleb Martin went 0 for 7, falling just short of claiming the MVP honors for the Eastern Conference playoffs.